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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Neurochem. 2015 Sep 29;135(6):1062–1079. doi: 10.1111/jnc.13348

Figure 3. Four neuroadaptations in the NAc core promote the reinstatement of cocaine seeking.

Figure 3

The top panel depicts a NAc core synapse of a drug-naïve rat while the bottom panel depicts that of a rat post-cocaine. Relative to drug naïve animals, cocaine animals display: 1) reduced expression and function of xCT/system xc−, leading to reduced basal non-vesicular glutamate; 2) reduced expression and function of EAAT2, leading to increased glutamate overflow during reinstatement (3); and 4) increased expression of GluR2-lacking AMPA receptors and the AMPA-receptor clustering protein Narp. As discussed below, compounds which restore both xCT and GLT-1 restore basal levels of glutamate and attenuate glutamate spillover during reinstatement.