PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Huang, Ziran
AU  - Wei, Xiaoyan
AU  - Wang, Yihui
AU  - Tian, Jing
AU  - Dong, Jihui
AU  - Liang, Bo
AU  - Lu, Lin
AU  - Zhang, Wen
TI  - Psilocybin Promotes Cell-Type-Specific Changes in the Orbitofrontal Cortex Revealed by Single-Nucleus RNA-seq
AID  - 10.1101/2024.01.07.573163
DP  - 2024 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2024.01.07.573163
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2024/01/07/2024.01.07.573163.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2024/01/07/2024.01.07.573163.full
AB  - Recent clinical breakthroughs hold great promise for the application of psilocybin in the treatments of psychological disorders, such as depression, addiction, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psilocybin is a psychedelic whose metabolite, psilocin, is a 5-HT2A receptor agonist. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanisms for the effects of psilocybin on the brain are not fully illustrated, and cell type-specific and circuit effects of psilocybin are not fully understood. Here, we combined single-nucleus RNA-seq with functional assays to study the long-term effects of psilocybin on the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a brain region vulnerable to psychological disorders such as depression. We showed that a single dose of psilocybin induced long-term genetic and functional changes in neurons of the OFC, and excitatory and inhibitory neurons collectively reduced circuit activity of the brain region. Knockdown of 5-HT2A receptor in deep layer excitatory neurons abated psilocybin-induced functional changes and the anti-depressant effect. Together, these results showed the cell type-specific mechanisms of psilocybin and shed light on the brain region difference in the effect of psychedelics.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.