Sonia I. Lombroso

TL;DR: Using in vivo stable-isotope labelling in mice, it is shown that the metabolism of alcohol contributes to rapid acetylation of histones in the brain, and that this occurs in part through the direct deposition of acetyl groups that are derived from alcohol onto Histones in an ACSS2-dependent manner.

TL;DR: A novel technology, zinc-finger engineered transcription factors, are found to be sufficient to regulate the expression of Cdk5 and results in altered behavioral responses to cocaine and social stress, providing compelling evidence of the significance of epigenetic regulation in the neurobiological basis of reward- and stress-related neuropsychiatric disease.

TL;DR: This work presents the first demonstration of cell- and gene-specific targeting of histone modifications, which model naturally occurring transcriptional phenomena that control social defeat stress behavior and reveals clear differences in the social defeat phenotype induced by Fosb gene manipulation in MSN subtypes.

TL;DR: A molecular mechanism whereby Nr4a1 activation leads to persistent changes in gene expression, chromatin and behaviour, in the context of cocaine abstinence is defined, providing evidence that targeting abstinence-induced homeostatic gene expression is a potential therapeutic target in cocaine addiction.

TL;DR: It is found that male mice exhibit stronger long-term memory retrieval than do female mice, and this finding was associated with male-specific epigenetic activation of hippocampal Cdk5 expression, which may reflect differences in the effect of CDK5 on downstream target proteins that regulate memory.