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Locus-specific epigenetic remodeling controls addiction- and depression-related behaviors

Nature Neuroscience volume 17, pages 1720–1727 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Chronic exposure to drugs of abuse or stress regulates transcription factors, chromatin-modifying enzymes and histone post-translational modifications in discrete brain regions. Given the promiscuity of the enzymes involved, it has not yet been possible to obtain direct causal evidence to implicate the regulation of transcription and consequent behavioral plasticity by chromatin remodeling that occurs at a single gene. We investigated the mechanism linking chromatin dynamics to neurobiological phenomena by applying engineered transcription factors to selectively modify chromatin at a specific mouse gene in vivo. We found that histone methylation or acetylation at the Fosb locus in nucleus accumbens, a brain reward region, was sufficient to control drug- and stress-evoked transcriptional and behavioral responses via interactions with the endogenous transcriptional machinery. This approach allowed us to relate the epigenetic landscape at a given gene directly to regulation of its expression and to its subsequent effects on reward behavior.

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Figure 1: Engineered transcription factors targeting the Fosb promoter bidirectionally regulate gene expression in NAc neurons via epigenetic manipulation.
Figure 2: HSV-Fosb-ZFP35-p65 and -G9a in the NAc specifically regulate FosB/ΔFosB expression.
Figure 3: Cocaine induction of FosB/ΔFosB protein expression and endogenous transcription factor binding is blocked by HSV-Fosb-ZFP35-G9a in the NAc.
Figure 4: Engineered transcription factors bidirectionally modulate cocaine- and stress-evoked behaviors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank G. Stuber and R. Ung for their help in generating social interaction heat maps. This work was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (E.A.H. and E.J.N.), the National Institute of Mental Health and the Hope for Depression Research Foundation (E.J.N.).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Deveroux Ferguson

    Present address: Present address: Department of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix, Arizona, USA,

  2. Feng Zhang

    Present address: Present address: Department of Physiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fishberg Department of Neuroscience and Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA

    Elizabeth A Heller, Hannah M Cates, Catherine J Peña, Haosheng Sun, Ningyi Shao, Jian Feng, Sam A Golden, Jessica J Walsh, Michelle Mazei-Robison, Deveroux Ferguson, Scott J Russo, Li Shen & Eric J Nestler

  2. National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    James P Herman

  3. Department of Pharmacology and System Therapeutics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA

    Jessica J Walsh & Ming-Hu Han

  4. Sigma Aldrich, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

    Scott Knight, Mark A Gerber & Christian Nievera

  5. Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA

    Carol S Tamminga

  6. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Rachael L Neve

  7. Sangamo Biosciences Inc., Richmond, California

    H Steve Zhang

  8. McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Deveroux Ferguson & Feng Zhang

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  1. Elizabeth A Heller
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Contributions

E.A.H. designed and executed the biochemical, molecular and behavioral experiments (viral packaging constructs, qRT-PCR expression analysis, chromatin immunoprecipitation (mouse and human), immunohistochemical preparation and behavioral assays). H.M.C. and H.S. generated viral packaging constructs, conducted expression analysis and prepared chromatin. C.J.P. and S.A.G. analyzed immunohistochemical data. N.S. and L.S. conducted genome-wide sequence analysis. J.F. and E.A.H. performed DNA methylation sequencing. S.A.G. and S.J.R. generated human chromatin. E.A.H., H.M.C., H.S., J.J.W., M.M.-R., D.F. and M.-H.H. performed stereotaxic mouse surgery. J.P.H. generated mouse locomotor heat maps. C.S.T. prepared human postmortem brain tissue. R.L.N. generated HSV viral vectors. H.S.Z. generated the G9a catalytic domain construct. S.K., M.A.G. and C.N. generated the ZFP constructs. F.Z. generated the TALE constructs. C.J.P., E.A.H. and H.M.C. analyzed the data conducted statistical analyses. E.A.H. and E.J.N. discussed the data and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eric J Nestler.

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Integrated supplementary information

Supplementary Figure 1 A suite of Fosb-ZFPs bidirectionally regulate Fosb expression in vitro.

(a) FosB/ΔFosB mRNA was significantly induced by several FosB-ZFP-p65 and -G9a constructs expressed in N2a cells and harvested after 48 hours. FosB-ZFP-NFD constructs activated gene expression to a lesser extent or not at all. Data are normalized to mock transfected cells. Complete statistics are available in Supplementary Table 3. Student's unpaired t-test: *P<0.05, *P<0.10. Data are presented as mean ± s.e.m.

Source data

Supplementary Figure 2 HSV-ZFPs specifically infect neurons in NAc and inhibit basal Fosb expression.

(a) HSV-GFP specifically infects DARPP-32 positive neurons in the NAc. White arrows indicate double labeled cells. (b) NAc injection of HSV-FosB-ZFP35-G9a repressed expression of FosB/ΔFosB in HSV infected (GFP+) cells [t13=3.55, *P=0.033; n=7, 8] compared to HSV-FosB-ZFP35-G9a (72 hours post HSV injection). Data are presented as mean ± s.e.m.

Source data

Supplementary Figure 3 Regulation of Fosb expression and reward behavior by Fosb-TALEs and a suite of additional catalytic domains fused to Fosb-ZFP35.

(a) Locations of FosB-ZFP and -TALE binding relative to the FosB TSS. The location of functional SRF and CREB sites are shown. (b) FosB/ΔFosB mRNA expression in the NAc was significantly induced by HSV-FosB-TALE2-VP64 [FosB: t8=3.03, *P=0.016; ΔFosB: t8=6.40, *P=0.000; n=5], and -FosB-TALE3-VP64 [FosB: t8=2.79, *P=0.023; ΔFosB: t8=4.01, *P=0.004; n=5] compared to control virus. (c) The binding sites of the 6-finger ZFP35 and 17-RVD (repeat variable diresidue) TALE1 recognize the FosB promoter at overlapping sites approximately 250 bp upstream from the FosB TSS. (d) FosB-ZFP35-p65 [FosB: t4=5.91, *P=0.004; ΔFosB: t4=26.11, *P=0.000; n=3], -p65x2 [FosB: t4=2.30, *P=0.000; ΔFosB: t4=3.46, *P=0.026; n=3], -VP16 [FosB: t4=9.04, *P=0.001; ΔFosB: t4=7.45, *P=0.002; n=3], and -VP64 [FosB: t4=19.40, *P=0.001; ΔFosB: t4=7.45, *P=0.001; n=3] and FosB-TALE1-VP64 [FosB: t4=6.80, *P=0.002; ΔFosB: t4=15.17, *P=0.000; n=3] activate FosB/ΔFosB mRNA levels when expressed in Neuro2a cells and harvested after 48 hours. Data are normalized to mock transfected cells. (e) HSV-FosB-TALE1-VP64 in NAc sensitizes cocaine-induced hyperactivity over time. There is a significant interaction between day, cocaine treatment, and virus [F(3,32)=3.42, *P=0.029]. TALE1-VP64 sensitizes the effect of cocaine on locomotor activity [main effect of day among TALE1-VP64 [F(3,35)=9.92, *P=0.000, n=10], but not GFP control [F(3,36)=2.05, P=0.126, n=9]. HSV-GFP data are the same as in Fig. 4d-e. Heat maps show representative locomotor data within the chamber for mice over the course of repeated cocaine exposure. Data are presented as mean ± s.e.m.

Source data

Supplementary Figure 4 Differential regulation by Fosb-ZFPs in vitro and in vivo.

(a) Expression of FosB-ZFP35-G9a differs between N2a cells and NAc [t6=4.50, *P=0.004; n=3,5]. (b) Titration of the amount of FosB-ZFP35-G9a expression in N2a cells leads to a reduction in the amount of induced mRNA expression of ΔFosB but not FosB. Using a 2-tailed Pearson correlation, we found a significant correlation between μg of transfected DNA and mRNA fold change of ΔFosB [R12=0.83, *P=0.001] but not FosB [R12=.66, P=0.665]. Data are presented as mean ± s.e.m.

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Supplementary Figure 5 Full blots of experiment shown in Figure 1e.

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Supplementary Figures 1–5 and Supplementary Tables 1–3 (PDF 18467 kb)

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Heller, E., Cates, H., Peña, C. et al. Locus-specific epigenetic remodeling controls addiction- and depression-related behaviors. Nat Neurosci 17, 1720–1727 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3871

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