Summary
ABSTRACT The development of addictive behaviors to stimulants and opiates requires changes in the reward center of the brain, in particular, the Nucleus Accumbens. Animal studies and examination of postmortem human cocaine users have indicated a decrease in some gene repressive-epigenetic modifiers, such as the histone methyl transferases G9a and its paralog G9a-like protein (GLP), which methylates histone 3 (H3) lysine 9 (K9). Decreases in these repressive modifiers and concomitant increases in gene-activating chromatin marks are thought to induce the expression of genes involved in neuroplas
