Gene expression in the addicted brain

Addiction is due to changes in the structure and function of the brain, including neuronal networks and the cells that comprise them. Within cells, gene expression changes can track and help explain their altered function. Transcriptional changes induced by addictive agents are dynamic and divergent and range from signal pathway-specific perturbations to widespread molecular and cellular dysregulation that can be measured by "omic" methods and that can be used to identify new pathways. The molecular effects of addiction depend on timing of exposure or withdrawal, the stage of adaptation, the brain region, and the behavioral model, there being many models of addiction. However, the molecular neural adaptations across different drug exposures, conditions, and regions are to some extent shared and can reflect common actions on pathways relevant to addiction. Epigenetic studies of DNA methylation and histone modifications and studies of regulatory RNA networks have been informative for elucidating the mechanisms of transcriptional change in the addicted brain.