Dysregulation of the dopaminergic system has been linked to addiction 16. In our study, several components of dopaminergic transmission in the amygdala were up-regulated by feno and tesa, respectively, as follows: Pmch (8%; 6%), Drd1a (32%; 32%), Drd2 (7%; 20%), Ddc (28%; 11%), Ppp1r1b (34%; 67%), Rasd2 (18%; 19%), Rgs9 (38%; 65%) and Slc10a4 (13%; 17%). Furthermore, WGCNA revealed that all of these genes were co-expressed in the same module (greenyellow), which was responsive to the effective treatments and contained many genes linked to alcohol consumption. This substantiates previous findings that PPARα activation modulates activity of dopamine cells 33 and further supports a role of dopamine in alcohol-drinking behavior.
