Our laboratory studies the long-term mechanisms involved in the formation of nicotine dependence and the triggers for drug relapse. We investigate two different types of brain responses when exposed to drugs of abuse: neuronal adaptations, which are mainly homeostatic responses due to excessive drug stimulation, and synaptic plasticity, which leads to the association of stimuli linking the drug to specific learned behaviors (conditioning).
The signals triggered by the activation of second messengers in addictive processes cannot solely account for the maintenance of synaptic activity in the long-term processes involved in addiction and relapse. There is evidence that the regulation of chromatin structure through post-translational modifications of DNA-binding proteins and DNA modifications could mediate the long-term behavioral changes induced by drugs of abuse.
The main objective is to study certain factors that produce chromatin remodeling as a key mechanism in the long-term effects induced by exposure to drugs of abuse in the generation of addictive behavior.