Orphan receptor GPR158 controls stress-induced depression
Abstract
Stress can be a motivational force for decisive action and adapting to novel environment; whereas, exposure to chronic stress contributes to the development of depression and anxiety. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying stress-responsive behaviors are not fully understood. Here, we identified the orphan receptor GPR158 as a novel regulator operating in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) that links chronic stress to depression. GPR158 is highly upregulated in the PFC of human subjects with major depressive disorder. Exposure of mice to chronic stress also increased GPR158 protein levels in the PFC in a glucocorticoid-dependent manner. Viral overexpression of GPR158 in the PFC induced depressive-like behaviors. In contrast GPR158 ablation, led to a prominent antidepressant-like phenotype and stress resiliency. We found that GPR158 exerts its effects via modulating synaptic strength altering AMPA receptor activity. Taken together, our findings identify a new player in mood regulation and introduce a pharmacological target for managing depression.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institute of Mental Health (MH105482)
- Kirill A Martemyanov
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL105550)
- Kirill A Martemyanov
National Institute of Mental Health (MH107460)
- Hyungbae Kwon
National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA019921)
- Kenneth J Renner
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (DC014093)
- Samuel M Young
University of Iowa
- Samuel M Young
Max Planck Society
- Samuel M Young
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Laurie P Sutton
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All procedures were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocol (#16-032) at The Scripps Research Institute.
Reviewing Editor
- Richard D Palmiter, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, United States
Publication history
- Received: November 1, 2017
- Accepted: February 6, 2018
- Accepted Manuscript published: February 8, 2018 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: February 22, 2018 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2018, Sutton et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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