The brain-specific Neural Zinc Finger transcription factor 2b (NZF-2b/7ZFMyt1) causes suppression of cocaine-induced locomotor activity

Chronic cocaine induces high expression of the brain-specific Neural-Zinc-Finger transcription factor-2b (NZF-2b/7ZFMyt1), particularly in the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway, resulting in a 11-fold increase in NZF-2b/7ZFMyt1 expression in the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc). Overexpression of this gene in the NAc with a NZF-2b/7ZFMyt1-expressing lentivirus resulted in >55% decrease in locomotor activity upon chronic cocaine administration, compared to control animals. In contrast knocking-down the gene in the NAc with lentiviruses expressing shRNAs against NZF-2b/7ZFMyt1 induced strong hyperlocomotor activity upon cocaine. Strong inhibition of BDNF is observed upon NZF-2b/7ZFMyt1 expression, concomitant with strong induction of transcription factors REST1 (RE silencing transcription factor-1) and NAC1, probably leading to regulation of gene expression by interaction with histone deacetylases. These changes lead to decreased responsiveness of the animal to the locomotor-activating effects of cocaine, indicating that NZF-2b/7ZFMyt1 expression plays an important role in phenotypic changes induced by the drug.