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Hippocampal acetylcholine modulates stress-related behaviors independent of specific cholinergic inputs

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Abstract

Acetylcholine (ACh) levels are elevated in actively depressed subjects. Conversely, antagonism of either nicotinic or muscarinic ACh receptors can have antidepressant effects in humans and decrease stress-relevant behaviors in rodents. Consistent with a role for ACh in mediating maladaptive responses to stress, brain ACh levels increase in response to stressful challenges, whereas systemically blocking acetylcholinesterase (AChE, the primary ACh degradative enzyme) elicits depression-like symptoms in human subjects, and selectively blocking AChE in the hippocampus increases relevant behaviors in rodents. We used an ACh sensor to characterize stress-evoked ACh release, then used chemogenetic, optogenetic and pharmacological approaches to determine whether cholinergic inputs from the medial septum/diagonal bands of Broca (MSDBB) or ChAT-positive neurons intrinsic to the hippocampus mediate stress-relevant behaviors in mice. Chemogenetic inhibition or activation of MSDBB cholinergic neurons did not result in significant behavioral effects, while inhibition attenuated the behavioral effects of physostigmine. In contrast, optogenetic stimulation of septohippocampal terminals or selective chemogenetic activation of ChAT-positive inputs to hippocampus increased stress-related behaviors. Finally, stimulation of sparse ChAT-positive hippocampal neurons increased stress-related behaviors in one ChAT-Cre line, which were attenuated by local infusion of cholinergic antagonists. These studies suggest that ACh signaling results in maladaptive behavioral responses to stress if the balance of signaling is shifted toward increased hippocampal engagement.

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Fig. 1: ACh levels increase in hippocampus in response to stress.
Fig. 2: Effects of optogenetic stimulation of hippocampal terminal fields on anxiety-related behaviors following ChR2 infusion in the medial septum of C57BL/6 J mice.
Fig. 3: Behavioral effects of retrograde infusion of a Cre-dependent DREADD construct into the hippocampus of ChAT-Cre mouse lines.
Fig. 4: Stimulation of hippocampal ChAT-positive interneurons increases stress-relevant behavioral responses.
Fig. 5: Cholinergic receptor antagonists infused into the hippocampus decrease the effect of DREADD-mediated stimulation of hippocampal ChAT-Cre-expressing neurons.

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Code availability

All code used to analyze fiber photometry data is described in [24, 51, 52] and is available in online repositories and upon request.

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Acknowledgements

These studies were supported by National Institutes of Health grants MH077681, MH105824 and DA033945 from the National Institutes of Health and a NARSAD Distinguished Investigator grant from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. This work was funded in part by the State of Connecticut, Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, but this publication does not express the views of the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services or the State of Connecticut. We thank the National Institutes of Health Drug Supply Program for providing CNO.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 34 Park Street, 3rd Floor Research, New Haven, CT, 06508, USA

    Yann S. Mineur, Tenna N. Mose, Laura Vanopdenbosch, Ian M. Etherington, Chika Ogbejesi, Ashraful Islam, Cristiana M. Pineda, Richard B. Crouse, Wenliang Zhou, David C. Thompson, Matthew P. Bentham & Marina R. Picciotto

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  1. Yann S. Mineur
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Contributions

YSM designed, carried out and contributed to all experiments, analyzed data, and wrote the manuscript. TNM, AI, CNM, DCT, MB conducted DREADD experiments, histology, and analyses; LV, RCB conducted optogenetics experiments, histology, and analyses; IME and CO conducted fiber photometry experiments, histology, and analyses; WZ carried out electrophysiological recordings and analyses. MRP designed the study, analyzed outcomes, and wrote the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Marina R. Picciotto.

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Mineur, Y.S., Mose, T.N., Vanopdenbosch, L. et al. Hippocampal acetylcholine modulates stress-related behaviors independent of specific cholinergic inputs. Mol Psychiatry 27, 1829–1838 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01404-7

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