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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.08.11.247270

Up-Regulation of αCaMKII Impairs Cued Fear Extinction and NMDAR-Dependent LTD in the Lateral Amygdala

Cao, X.·An, S.·Wang, J.·Zhang, X.·Duan, Y.·Lv, J.·Wang, D.·Zhang, H.·Richter-Levin, G.
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Abstract

Impaired fear extinction is one of the hallmark symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The roles of CaMKII have been not extensively studied in fear extinction and LTD. Here, we found PTSD susceptible mice exhibited significant up-regulation of CaMKII in the lateral amygdala (LA). Consistently, increasing CaMKII in LA profoundly not only caused PTSD-like symptoms such as impaired fear extinction and anxiety-like behaviors, but also attenuated NMDAR-dependent LTD at thalamo-LA synapses, reduced GluA1-Ser845/Ser831 dephosphorylation and AMPAR internalization. Suppressing the elevated CaMKII to normal level could completely reverse both PTSD-like symptoms and the impairments in LTD, GluA1-Ser845/Ser831 dephosphorylation and AMPAR internalization. Intriguingly, deficits in AMPAR internalization and GluA1-Ser845/Ser831 dephosphorylation were detected not only after impaired fear extinction, but also after attenuated LTD Our results demonstrate for the first time GluA1-Ser845/Ser831 dephosphorylation and AMPAR internalization are molecular links between LTD and fear extinction, and suggest CaMKII may be a potential molecular determinant of PTSD.

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Cao, X., An, S., Wang, J., Zhang, X., Duan, Y., Lv, J., Wang, D., Zhang, H., Richter-Levin, G.. 2020-08-12. Up-Regulation of αCaMKII Impairs Cued Fear Extinction and NMDAR-Dependent LTD in the Lateral Amygdala. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.11.247270

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