Cited by 98Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology ResearchNicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors StudyNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

An essential role of acetylcholine-glutamate synergy at habenular synapses in nicotine dependence

Open access
Frahm, Silke, Antolin-Fontes, Beatriz, Görlich, Andreas, Zander, Johannes-Friedrich, Ahnert-Hilger, Gudrun, Ibañez-Tallon, Ines·2015·eLife

Abstract

A great deal of interest has been focused recently on the habenula and its critical role in aversion, negative-reward and drug dependence. Using a conditional mouse model of the ACh-synthesizing enzyme choline acetyltransferase (Chat), we report that local elimination of acetylcholine (ACh) in medial habenula (MHb) neurons alters glutamate corelease and presynaptic facilitation. Electron microscopy and immuno-isolation analyses revealed colocalization of ACh and glutamate vesicular transporters in synaptic vesicles (SVs) in the central IPN. Glutamate reuptake in SVs prepared from the IPN was increased by ACh, indicating vesicular synergy. Mice lacking CHAT in habenular neurons were insensitive to nicotine-conditioned reward and withdrawal. These data demonstrate that ACh controls the quantal size and release frequency of glutamate at habenular synapses, and suggest that the synergistic functions of ACh and glutamate may be generally important for modulation of cholinergic circuit function and behavior.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.7554/elife.11396

Cites

104 of 104 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Complementary dependencies may explain observed synergies between vGluT and VAChT or vGluT and ZnT3 on the same synaptic vesicle.

    “These complementary dependencies may explain the observed synergies between vGluT and VAChT or vGluT and the vesicular zinc transporter (ZnT3) when these are localized to the same synaptic vesicle.5,21,22”
  • Several groups found that vGluT and VAChT function synergistically, and depletion of one transporter or neurotransmitter also depletes loading and release of the other.

    “Interestingly, several groups have found that vGluT and VAChT function synergistically and that depletion of one transporter or neurotransmitter also depletes loading and release of the other.21,22,63,69”
  • Immunogold EM and immunoprecipitation suggest that vGluT and VAChT co-package glutamate and ACh into the same synaptic vesicle in mHb-IPN and striatal cholinergic-to-SPN synapses.

    “Immunogold EM and immunoprecipitation experiments suggest that vGluT and VAChT co-package glutamate and ACh into the same synaptic vesicle in both mHb to IPN synapses and striatal cholinergic to medium spiny neuron synapses 21,22,56 (Figure 1A).”
  • Ach and glutamate are copackaged into the same synaptic vesicles at the mHb-to-IPN synapse.

    “Several groups have found evidence for Ach and glutamate being copackaged into the same synaptic vesicles at this synapse 21,22,56,124”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Frahm, S., Antolin-Fontes, B., Görlich, A., Zander, J.-F., Ahnert-Hilger, G., & Ibañez-Tallon, I.
Affiliations
  • Max Delbrück Center (DE)
  • Molecular Neurobiology Group, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany
  • Rockefeller University (US)
  • Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (DE)
  • Institute for Integrative Neuroanatomy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Venue
eLife
Published
2015-12-01
Volume
4
Pages
e11396-e11396
ISSN
2050-084X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2186909533
Cited by
98
References
104
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 5
FWCI
3.27
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • eLife (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • MDC Repository (Max-Delbrueck-Center for Molecular Medicine) (acceptedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (P30DA035756)
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (GO 2334/1-1, AH67/7-1)
  • Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Study
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
Keywords
acetylcholine, glutamate, habenula, nicotine dependence, choline acetyltransferase, medial habenula, interpeduncular nucleus, synaptic vesicles, presynaptic facilitation, nicotine reward, nicotine withdrawal, cholinergic circuits, vesicular glutamate transporter, quantal release
MeSH terms
Acetylcholine, Animals, Conditioning, Classical, Synapses, Tobacco Use Disorder, Glutamic Acid, Habenula, Mice, Cholinergic Neurons

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review