Sons of Cocaine Using Fathers Have Profound Memory Impairments

Summary: Research suggests men who use cocaine at the time of conception could increase the risk of their son developing learning difficulties and memory loss.

Source: University of Pennsylvania.

Fathers who use cocaine at the time of conceiving a child may be putting their sons at risk of learning disabilities and memory loss. The findings of the animal study were published online in Molecular Psychiatry by a team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers say the findings reveal that drug abuse by fathers—separate from the well-established effects of cocaine use in mothers— may negatively impact cognitive development in their male offspring.

The study, which was led by Mathieu Wimmer, PhD, a post-doctoral researcher in the laboratory of R. Christopher Pierce, PhD, a professor of Neuroscience in Psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, found evidence that the sons of fathers that ingested cocaine prior to conception struggle to make new memories. Their findings demonstrated that the sons — but not the daughters — of male rats that consumed cocaine for an extended period of time could not remember the location of items in their surroundings and had impaired synaptic plasticity in hippocampus, a brain region critical for learning and spatial navigation in humans and rodents.

“These results suggest that the sons of male cocaine addicts may be at risk for learning deficits,” said senior author, R. Christopher Pierce, PhD, a professor of Neuroscience in Psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Pierce and his colleagues propose that epigenetic mechanisms are at the root of the problem. Epigenetics refers to heritable traits that are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence, as is the case with genetic inheritance. DNA is tightly wound around proteins called histones, like thread around a spool, and chemical changes to histones influence the expression of genes, which is an epigenetic process. Their research showed that cocaine use in dads caused epigenetic changes in the brain of their sons, thereby changing the expression of genes important for memory formation. D-serine, a molecule essential for memory, was depleted in male rats whose father took cocaine and replenishing the levels of D-serine in the sons’ hippocampus improved learning in these animals.

In collaboration with Benjamin Garcia, PhD, presidential professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the Epigenetics Institute at the Perelman School of Medicine, the authors showed that cocaine abuse in dads broadly altered the chemical marks on histones in the brain of their sons, even though the offspring were never exposed to cocaine.

Image shows painting of a boy.
“These results suggest that the sons of male cocaine addicts may be at risk for learning deficits,” said senior author, R. Christopher Pierce, PhD. NeuroscienceNews.com image is for illustrative purposes only.

Chemical modifications on the histones were changed to favor active transcription of genes in the hippocampus of male rats with a paternal history of cocaine taking, allowing more production of the enzyme D-amino acid oxidase, which degrades D-serine. The authors propose that increased expression of the enzyme, driven by changes in the epigenetic landscape, cause the memory problems in the sons of addicted rats.

“There is substantial interest in the development of D-serine and related compounds, which are well tolerated by humans, as drug therapies,” Pierce said. “The ability of D-serine to reverse the adverse effects of paternal cocaine taking on learning adds potential clinical relevance to our research.”

About this neuroscience research article

Penn Medicine co-authors of the article include Lisa Briand, Bruno Fant, Leonardo Guercio, Adrian Arreola, Heath Schmidt, Simone Sidoli and Yumiao Han.

Funding: This research was supported with grants by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (T32 DA28874, R01 DA33641, K02 DA18678, K01 DA30445, K01 DA039308, R00 DA033372, R21 MH102679, R21 GM110174, DOD W81XWH-13-1-0426).

Source: Queen Muse – University of Pennsylvania
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Abstract for “Paternal cocaine taking elicits epigenetic remodeling and memory deficits in male progeny” by M E Wimmer, L A Briand, B Fant, L A Guercio, A C Arreola, H D Schmidt, S Sidoli, Y Han, B A Garcia and R C Pierce in Molecular Psychiatry. Published online February 21 2017 doi:10.1038/mp.2017.8

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]University of Pennsylvania “Sons of Cocaine Using Fathers Have Profound Memory Impairments.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 25 February 2017.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/memory-impairment-cocaine-dads-6157/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]University of Pennsylvania (2017, February 25). Sons of Cocaine Using Fathers Have Profound Memory Impairments. NeuroscienceNew. Retrieved February 25, 2017 from https://neurosciencenews.com/memory-impairment-cocaine-dads-6157/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]University of Pennsylvania “Sons of Cocaine Using Fathers Have Profound Memory Impairments.” https://neurosciencenews.com/memory-impairment-cocaine-dads-6157/ (accessed February 25, 2017).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

Paternal cocaine taking elicits epigenetic remodeling and memory deficits in male progeny

Paternal environmental perturbations including exposure to drugs of abuse can produce profound effects on the physiology and behavior of offspring via epigenetic modifications. Here we show that adult drug-naive male offspring of cocaine-exposed sires have memory formation deficits and associated reductions in NMDA receptor-mediated hippocampal synaptic plasticity. Reduced levels of the endogenous NMDA receptor co-agonist d-serine were accompanied by increased expression of the d-serine degrading enzyme d-amino acid oxidase (Dao1) in the hippocampus of cocaine-sired male progeny. Increased Dao1 transcription was associated with enrichment of permissive epigenetic marks on histone proteins in the hippocampus of male cocaine-sired progeny, some of which were enhanced near the Dao1 locus. Finally, hippocampal administration of d-serine reversed both the memory formation and synaptic plasticity deficits. Collectively, these results demonstrate that paternal cocaine exposure produces epigenetic remodeling in the hippocampus leading to NMDA receptor-dependent memory formation and synaptic plasticity impairments only in male progeny, which has significant implications for the male descendants of chronic cocaine users.

“Paternal cocaine taking elicits epigenetic remodeling and memory deficits in male progeny” by M E Wimmer, L A Briand, B Fant, L A Guercio, A C Arreola, H D Schmidt, S Sidoli, Y Han, B A Garcia and R C Pierce in Molecular Psychiatry. Published online February 21 2017 doi:10.1038/mp.2017.8

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