ATP-activated purinergic P2X receptors (P2XR) in microglia are also implicated in neuroinflammatory responses in preclinical models of drug addiction (Fernandes et al., 2016). P2X7 receptors are abundantly expressed in microglia and mediate pro-inflammatory IL-1β release through activation of the inflammasome NLRP3 (Bhattacharya, 2018). In murine BV2 microglial cells, ethanol potentiates P2X7-mediated IL-1β release (Asatryan et al., 2017); however, blockade of P2X7 with the antagonist Brilliant Blue G does not alter ethanol intake in a mouse binge-like drinking model (Lainiola and Linden, 2017). Brilliant Blue G, however, may have off-target effects (Bhattacharya et al., 2013) and more specific agents are needed to target P2XRs.
