An Anterior Cingulate Cortex-to-Midbrain Projection Controls Chronic Itch in  

作　　者：Ting-Ting Zhang Su-Shan Guo Hui-Ying Wang Qi Jing Xin Yi Zi-Han Hu Xin-Ren Yu Tian-Le Xu Ming-Gang Liu Xuan Zhao 

机构地区：[1]Department of Anesthesiology,Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital,School of Medicine,Tongji University,Shanghai 200072,China [2]Department of Anatomy and Physiology,Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine,Shanghai 200025,China [3]Center for Brain Science of Shanghai Children's Medical Center,Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine,Shanghai 200127,China

出　　处：《Neuroscience Bulletin》2023年第5期793-807,共15页神经科学通报（英文版）

基　　金：supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(81873787,81961128024,32170994,and 82201362);Shanghai Natural Science Foundation(18ZR1424800 and 20ZR1430000);a Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project(2018SHZDZX05);the innovative research team of high-level local universities in Shanghai.

摘　　要：Itch is an unpleasant sensation that provokes the desire to scratch.While acute itch serves as a protec-tive system to warn the body of external irritating agents,chronic itch is a debilitating but poorly-treated clinical dis-ease leading to repetitive scratching and skin lesions.How-ever,the neural mechanisms underlying the pathophysiol-ogy of chronic itch remain mysterious.Here,we identified a cell type-dependent role of the anterior cingulate cortex(ACC)in controlling chronic itch-related excessive scratch-ing behaviors in mice.Moreover,we delineated a neural circuit originating from excitatory neurons of the ACC to the ventral tegmental area(VTA)that was critically involved in chronic itch.Furthermore,we demonstrate that the ACC→VTA circuit also selectively modulated histaminergic acute itch.Finally,the ACC neurons were shown to predomi-nantly innervate the non-dopaminergic neurons of the VTA.Taken together,our findings uncover a cortex-midbrain cir-cuit for chronic itch-evoked scratching behaviors and shed novel insights on therapeutic intervention.

关 键 词：sAnterior cingulate cortex Chronic itch Ventral tegmental area-Chemogenetics Neural circuit 

分 类 号：B845.1[哲学宗教—心理学]