Effects of lithium and aripiprazole on brain stimulation reward and neuroplasticity markers in the limbic forebrain

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe pathological condition with impaired reward-related processing. The present study was designed to assess the effects of two commonly used BD medications, the mood stabilizer lithium chloride (LiCl) and the atypical antipsychotic and antimanic agent aripiprazole, in an animal model of reward and motivation and on markers of neuroplasticity in the limbic forebrain in rats. We utilized intracranial self-simulation (ICSS) to assess the effects of acute and chronic administration of LiCl and aripiprazole on brain stimulation reward, and phosphorylation studies to determine their effects on specific cellular neuroplasticity markers, i.e., the phosphorylation of CREB and crucial phosphorylation sites on the GluA1 subunit of AMPA receptors and the NA1 and NA2B subunits of NMDA receptors, in the limbic forebrain. Chronic LiCl induced tolerance to the anhedonic effect of the drug observed after acute administration, while chronic aripiprazole induced a sustained anhedonic effect. These distinct behavioral responses might be related to differences in molecular markers of neuroplasticity. Accordingly, we demonstrated that chronic LiCl, but not aripiprazole, decreased phosphorylation of CREB at the Ser133 site and NA1 at the Ser896 site in the prefrontal cortex and GluA1 at the Ser831 site and NA2B at the Ser1303 site in the ventral striatum. The present study provides evidence for BD medication-evoked changes in reward and motivation processes and in specific markers of neuronal plasticity in the limbic forebrain, promoting the notion that these drugs may blunt dysregulated reward processes in BD by counteracting neuronal plasticity deficits.