Traumatic-like fear memory recall causes persistent morphine conditioned place preference in drug withdrawn male mice

Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) can lead to substance use disorders (SUD), and in particular opioid dependence. Although preclinical models of the literature focused on traumatic stress-induced potentiation of opioid dependence acquisition, none studied the effect of fear memories during opioid withdrawal. The goal of this study was thus to develop and describe a preclinical model of the PTSD/SUD comorbidity during this critical period in adult male mice. Classically, the traumatic-like memory was acquired by fear conditioning and was followed by morphine-conditioned place preference (CPP) to acquire the associative memory linked to the drug-reinforcing effect. Departing from this approach, we evaluated the effect of a stress on drug-induced CPP using regular re-exposures to a conditioned fear stimulus recall (FR), immediately followed by CPP tests, several days after the last morphine injection (from the 5th to the 21st day). Our data indicated that FR sessions induce a persistent morphine CPP, that is absent in morphine withdrawn mice not subjected to FR. This effect was prevented when antalarmin, a corticotropin-releasing factor receptor 1 antagonist, was administered during morphine withdrawal before each FR. Persistent morphine-induced CPP was concomitant with a FR-induced kappa opioid receptor mRNA upregulation in the prefrontal cortex, while mu opioid receptor mRNA expression was enhanced in control morphine withdrawn mice, an effect absent, however, in withdrawn mice subjected to FR. Surprisingly, in the amygdala, endogenous opioid-related mRNA expression changes in relation with the long-term persistence of drug-induced CPP were few, but Next Generation Sequencing revealed differential expression of numerous microRNAs in that brain area between morphine-control vs morphine-FR mice. The present study thus proposes an innovative behavioral model of the PTSD/SUD-like comorbidity with biological modulations in both the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, paving the way to develop adapted treatments for this comorbidity in clinics.