Genetic knockout of the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor 1 facilitates the acquisition of morphine-induced conditioned place preference and aversion in mice.

Drug addiction is considered the pathological usurpation of normal learning and memory. G protein-coupled estrogen receptor 1 (GPER1) plays an important role in normal learning and memory, but the effect of GPER1 on addiction-related pathological memory has not been reported. Our study used GPER1 knockout (GPER1 KO) and wild-type (WT) mice to compare the sensitivity differences of morphine- and sucrose-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) and naloxone-induced conditioned place aversion (CPA), and differences in dopamine (DA) content in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that GPER1 KO mice showed higher sensitivity to morphine-induced CPP and naloxone-induced CPA, and corresponding to the behavioral effect, the DA content in the NAc of GPER1 KO mice was significantly higher than that of WT mice. Interestingly, the sensitivity of GPER1 KO mice to sucrose-induced CPP did not differ from that of the WT mice, and there was no significant difference in the DA content in the NAc between the two genotypes of mice. GPER1 knockout promoted the formation of morphine addiction-related positive and aversive memory, and its molecular biological mechanism may be associated with increased DA content in the NAc. Therefore, GPER1 plays an important role in the formation of addiction-related pathological memory and may become a potential molecular target for drug addiction therapy.