New strategies to directly target and manipulate microglia, such as microglia-specific DREADD (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs) delivery (Grace et al., 2016), Cre-driver mice for microglia-specific genetic manipulation (Burma et al., 2017), and the use of different microglia inhibitor drugs (Leduc-Pessah et al., 2017), will advance understanding of the in vivo effects of microglia within a functioning, intact central immune system and their contribution in modulating alcohol behaviors.
