PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Julia C. Lemos
AU  - Jung Hoon Shin
AU  - Anna E. Ingebretson
AU  - Lauren K. Dobbs
AU  - Veronica A. Alvarez
TI  - Cholinergic interneurons as a novel target of CRF in the striatum that is spared by repeated stress
AID  - 10.1101/448571
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 448571
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/10/22/448571.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/10/22/448571.full
AB  - Acute stressors can stimulate appetitive and exploratory behaviors, not just produce negative affect that impair performance. Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF), which is released in the brain in response to stress, acts on different targets and circuits to mediate both the negative and positive effects of stress. In the nucleus accumbens, CRF facilitates appetitive behavior through mechanisms not fully understood. Here we report that cholinergic interneurons (CINs) are a novel target for CRF actions in the striatum. CRF enhances the spontaneous firing via activation of CRF-type 1 receptors expressed on CINs. This causes the activation muscarinic acetylcholine receptors type 5, which mediate CRF potentiation of dopamine transmission in the striatum. Repeated stress selectively dampens some CRF functions but spare effect on CINs and changes CRF-R1 expression in a cell-specific manner. These data highlight the existence of diverse CRF targets within the striatum, which vary in their resilience to stress.