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Figure 1 | Genome Biology

Figure 1

From: Amphetamine recapitulates developmental programs in the zebrafish

Figure 1

Molecular pathways involved in the development of amphetamine addiction. The scheme represents a working hypothesis identifying potential molecular events that occur in the brain after repeated exposure to amphetamine. The amphetamines are known to cause substantial and early increases in the expression of several transcription factors, in part via the activation of dopaminergic and glutamatergic systems. These transcription factors, in turn, regulate more delayed transcription of other genes that participate in signal transduction, synaptic plasticity and, as reported by Webb et al. [8], brain development. Recent experiments have also identified epigenetic modifications of histones as important regulators of changes in gene expression after exposure to drugs of abuse. When taken together, these altered patterns of gene and protein expression might serve as triggers for potentially multiple coincident and/or non-coincident switches that promote the progressive conversion from drug-exposed to drug-addicted brains.

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