Ruthie E Wittenberg, Sanghee Yun, Kechun Yang, Olivia K Swanson, Shannon L Wolfman, Lorianna M Colón, Amelia J Eisch, John A Dani
{"title":"Paradoxical ventral tegmental area GABA signaling drives enhanced morphine reward after adolescent nicotine.","authors":"Ruthie E Wittenberg, Sanghee Yun, Kechun Yang, Olivia K Swanson, Shannon L Wolfman, Lorianna M Colón, Amelia J Eisch, John A Dani","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.027","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>An important yet poorly understood risk factor for opioid use disorder is adolescent nicotine use. We investigated the neural mechanisms underlying this understudied interaction.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Male and female adolescent mice received two-weeks of nicotine water (Adol Nic) or plain water (Adol Water). In adulthood, mice underwent three morphine tests: conditioned place preference (CPP), locomotor sensitization, and two-bottle choice. Ex vivo ventral tegmental area (VTA) brain slices were assessed via patch clamp for GABA and dopamine (DA) neuron morphine responses. Finally, VTA GABA neurons were chemogenetically inhibited during morphine CPP.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In adulthood, Adol Nic mice had greater morphine CPP, more morphine locomotor sensitization, and more choice-based morphine consumption vs. Adol Water mice. In contrast, adult mice given nicotine vs. water had similar morphine CPP measured a month later. Patch clamp analysis of VTA neurons from adult Adol Water mice showed canonical cell-type responses to bath-applied morphine: fewer action potentials in GABA neurons and more in DA neurons. Paradoxically, VTA GABA and DA neurons from adult Adol Nic mice did not show these morphine responses. In support of a causal relationship between GABA neuron firing and reward behavior, chemogenetic inhibition of VTA GABA neurons in Adol Water mice during pairing increased morphine CPP. In contrast, inhibition of VTA GABA neurons in Adol Nic mice brought morphine CPP down to control levels.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These data indicate a circuitry adaptation by which adolescent nicotine intake promotes morphine reward later in life, showing that adolescent nicotine exposure alters reward circuitry well into adulthood.</p>","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144504808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vascular homeostasis in suicidal behavior: from molecular mechanisms to clinical implications.","authors":"Aiste Lengvenyte, Philippe Courtet","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Suicidal behaviors (SB) remain a major global health challenge, reflecting persistent gaps in understanding their neurobiological underpinnings. The scarcity of validated biological markers for diagnosis, prediction, or treatment response impedes clinical progress. Emerging evidence implicates vascular dysregulation as a contributing factor in the pathophysiology of SB. This review critically synthesizes findings from clinical and preclinical studies to explore how disruptions in vascular homeostasis - including endothelial integrity, blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability, platelet function, and microvascular flow - are associated with SB and related phenotypes. Epidemiological and genetic data further highlight shared vulnerability between SB and cardiovascular or neurovascular conditions. Additionally, individuals with SB exhibit signs of increased BBB permeability, platelet activation, nitric oxide dysregulation, altered kynurenine metabolism, elevated matrix metalloproteinase-9 activity, and white matter hyperintensities. These vascular disturbances may promote a pro-inflammatory and oxidative environment that impairs neuroplasticity, thereby heightening vulnerability to SB through cognitive and emotional dysregulation. Emerging molecular indicators of vascular dysfunction - such as claudin-5, thrombospondins, platelet-derived growth factors, and components of the nitric oxide system - show potential for improving diagnosis and guiding therapeutic development, though further replication is needed. While the current evidence remains preliminary and subject to limitations discussed herein, vascular dysfunction may serve as a dynamic indicator of both acute suicide risk and longer-term susceptibility. This review integrates vascular homeostasis into the broader biological framework of SB, alongside stress-response pathways, inflammation, and neural dysfunction, offering novel insights into SB pathophysiology and paving the way for developing targeted diagnostic tools and interventions.</p>","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144494088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Robin M Murray, Alice Egerton, Yueming Gao, Anthony A Grace, Oliver Howes, Sameer Jauhar, Stefan Leucht, Eric Y H Chen, James H MacCabe, Robert A McCutcheon, Sridhar Natesan, David Taylor
{"title":"Why is Clozapine uniquely Effective in Treatment Resistant Schizophrenia?","authors":"Robin M Murray, Alice Egerton, Yueming Gao, Anthony A Grace, Oliver Howes, Sameer Jauhar, Stefan Leucht, Eric Y H Chen, James H MacCabe, Robert A McCutcheon, Sridhar Natesan, David Taylor","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.011","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Much is known about the use, benefits, and side-effects, of clozapine in treatment resistant schizophrenia (TRS). However, why clozapine is more effective than other antipsychotics in TRS remains unclear. This paper addresses this question. TRS patients show glutamate abnormalities, and clozapine has widespread effects on glutamate. However, these actions have not been proven different to those of other antipsychotics. Immune dysfunction is also reported in TRS, and clozapine has anti-inflammatory actions, but these have not been correlated with clinical improvement. Currently, there is much interest in muscarinic abnormalities in psychosis. Unlike most antipsychotics, clozapine has important effects on muscarinic receptors, particularly M1 and M4, and its major metabolite, N-desmethylclozapine, is a full agonist at M1. These effects are likely crucial to clozapine's effectiveness. In addition, clozapine's lower D2 receptor occupancy has been postulated to allow gradual resolution of dopamine receptor supersensitivity in the minority of patients with TRS who initially respond to antipsychotics but become resistant following long-term dopamine blockade. This hypothesis, however, remains controversial. Clozapine's multi-receptor profile enables it to have beneficial actions on the non-psychotic symptoms common in TRS: its ability to bind to histamine H1, serotonin 5-HT1A and GABA-B receptors offers an explanation for its anxiolytic actions while effects on 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A and 5-HT7 receptors likely underly its antidepressant properties. Clozapine shares these properties with olanzapine and quetiapine but its affinity for muscarinic receptors may be the mechanism by which it is more effective in TRS.</p>","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144494089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Susmita Malwade, Andres Ingason, Konstantin Khodosevich
{"title":"The use of single-cell and spatial omics to study copy number variants","authors":"Susmita Malwade, Andres Ingason, Konstantin Khodosevich","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.010","url":null,"abstract":"Copy number variants (CNVs) are structural genomic rearrangements that alter the number of gene copies in genome. Some CNVs are highly penetrant for psychiatric disorders, where the total CNV impact to a neuropsychiatric phenotype is based on potential contribution from every gene it encompasses. However, it can be challenging to associate the typically numerous genes within the CNV to a mechanistic understanding of how brain dysfunction arises. Thus, open questions in CNV research are: how can the genes driving a phenotype be identified from all genes in a CNV and how can molecular mechanisms that lead to brain dysfunction with numerous potential candidate genes be determined? Until recently, these questions could be addressed only by highly laborious experimental setups that include screening individual and combinatorial knockouts of genes within a CNV. With the advance of single-cell and spatial omics, published high-resolution transcriptional data in space and time can help predict those genes that have the highest potential to drive a phenotype and thus pave the way for more efficient studies from genotype to phenotype. In this review, we discuss current progress in single-cell and spatial omics and propose a strategy for implementing these technologies in CNV research.","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144335488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Arjun Sethi, Suzanne O’Brien, James Blair, Essi Viding, Daniel Shani, Oliver Robinson, Mitul Mehta, Christine Ecker, Marija-Magdalena Petrinovic, Marco Catani, Nigel Blackwood, Moira Doolan, Declan G.M. Murphy, Stephen Scott, Michael C. Craig
{"title":"Successful Evidence-Based Parenting Programs are Associated With Brain Changes and Improved Reward Processing in Boys With Conduct Problems","authors":"Arjun Sethi, Suzanne O’Brien, James Blair, Essi Viding, Daniel Shani, Oliver Robinson, Mitul Mehta, Christine Ecker, Marija-Magdalena Petrinovic, Marco Catani, Nigel Blackwood, Moira Doolan, Declan G.M. Murphy, Stephen Scott, Michael C. Craig","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.008","url":null,"abstract":"Early parenting interventions are the gold standard treatment for reducing antisocial behaviour (ASB) in children with conduct problems (CP), but the neurocognitive mechanisms underpinning treatment response are unknown.","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144335487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jade Awada, Farnaz Delavari, Thomas A.W. Bolton, Fares Alouf, Fabien Carruzzo, Noemie Kuenzi, Mariia Kaliuzhna, Tal Geffen, Teresa Katthagen, Florian Schlagenhauf, Dimitri Van De Ville, Stephan Eliez, Stefan Kaiser, Indrit Bègue
{"title":"A Longitudinal and Reproducible Anti-coactivation Pattern Between the Cerebellum and the Ventral Tegmental Area Relates to Apathy in Schizophrenia","authors":"Jade Awada, Farnaz Delavari, Thomas A.W. Bolton, Fares Alouf, Fabien Carruzzo, Noemie Kuenzi, Mariia Kaliuzhna, Tal Geffen, Teresa Katthagen, Florian Schlagenhauf, Dimitri Van De Ville, Stephan Eliez, Stefan Kaiser, Indrit Bègue","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.009","url":null,"abstract":"Negative symptoms of schizophrenia lack effective treatments. Anomalies in the reward system and cerebellum have been linked to these symptoms. The cerebellum modulates reward circuitry via the ventral tegmental area (VTA). The \"cognitive dysmetria theory\" posits that reduced cerebellar inhibition in schizophrenia may underlie striatal hyperdopaminergia. However, the role of cerebellum-VTA connectivity in negative symptoms remains unclear.","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":"186 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144335486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wei Zheng, Xiaoxing Liu, Tangsheng Lu, Kai Yuan, Xue Li, Yanxue Xue, Qingqing Yin, Jie Shi, Guichang Zou, Jeffrey W. Grimm, Lin Lu
{"title":"Effect of natural rewards on substance use disorder: an incentive sensitization perspective","authors":"Wei Zheng, Xiaoxing Liu, Tangsheng Lu, Kai Yuan, Xue Li, Yanxue Xue, Qingqing Yin, Jie Shi, Guichang Zou, Jeffrey W. Grimm, Lin Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.026","url":null,"abstract":"In substance use disorder (SUD)/drug addiction, individuals often seek drug rewards at a large cost. Recent findings demonstrate that natural rewards may offer significant therapeutic potential against SUD. However, the mechanism by which natural rewards counteract SUD remains unclear. While the incentive sensitization theory provides valuable insights, a comprehensive understanding is still lacking. In this review, we first summarize the evidence and potential neurobiological mechanisms that support the protective effect of natural rewards against SUD, such as palatable food, social interaction, physical exercise, and environmental enrichment. We then propose an updated incentive sensitization framework to explain how natural rewards resist SUD by modulating “wanting” and “liking”. This review contributes to our understanding of the interaction between natural rewards and drug rewards, potentially facilitating the development of novel therapeutic strategies for SUD.","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144289866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mia A. McLean, Joanne Weinberg, Jillian V. Miller, Ting Guo, Anne R. Synnes, Steven P. Miller, Ruth E. Grunau
{"title":"Neonatal Hippocampal Volume and Parent Structuring at 18 months in Relation to Cortisol Stress Regulation Across Early Childhood and Executive Functions at Age 4 Years in Children Born Very Preterm","authors":"Mia A. McLean, Joanne Weinberg, Jillian V. Miller, Ting Guo, Anne R. Synnes, Steven P. Miller, Ruth E. Grunau","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.005","url":null,"abstract":"Children born very preterm (≤ 32 weeks gestational age) display altered neonatal brain maturation and physiological stress regulation which may be related to executive function difficulties. Supportive parent behaviors are related to better neurodevelopment, but children may vary in their susceptibility to such behaviors. We investigated whether supportive parenting in toddlerhood (1.5, 3 years) may moderate the relationship between neonatal hippocampal volume, stress dysregulation across childhood and executive functions.","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144289864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}