Citation

Mark MD, Wollenweber P, Gesk A, Kösters K, Batzke K, Janoschka C, Maejima T, Han J, Deneris ES, Herlitze S. Commun. Biol. 2019; 2: 373.

Affiliation

Department of General Zoology and Neurobiology, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - Nature)

DOI

10.1038/s42003-019-0622-0

PMID

31633064

PMCID

PMC6789038

Abstract

Aggressive behavior in our modern, civilized society is often counterproductive and destructive. Identifying specific proteins involved in the disease can serve as therapeutic targets for treating aggression. Here, we found that overexpression of RGS2 in explicitly serotonergic neurons augments male aggression in control mice and rescues male aggression in Rgs2
^-/-
mice, while anxiety is not affected. The aggressive behavior is directly correlated to the immediate early gene c-fos induction in the dorsal raphe nuclei and ventrolateral part of the ventromedial nucleus hypothalamus, to an increase in spontaneous firing in serotonergic neurons and to a reduction in the modulatory action of G_i/o and G_q/11 coupled 5HT and adrenergic receptors in serotonergic neurons of Rgs2-expressing mice. Collectively, these findings specifically identify that RGS2 expression in serotonergic neurons is sufficient to drive male aggression in mice and as a potential therapeutic target for treating aggression.

© The Author(s) 2019.

Language: en

Keywords

Aggression; Anxiety