mGluR5 in the nucleus accumbens is critical for promoting resilience to chronic stress

The authors showed that mGluR5 can upregulate the expression of ΔFosB, a resilience molecule, in the nucleus accumbens. In stress-induced animal models of depression, mGluR5-induced upregulation of ΔFosB in the nucleus accumbens enhances resilience to stress. Resilience to aversive events has a central role in determining whether stress leads to the development of depression. mGluR5 has been implicated in the pathophysiology of depression, but the effect of mGluR5 activity on stress resilience remains unexplored. We found that mGluR5 −/− (also known as Grm5 −/− ) mice displayed more depression-like behaviors (for example, learned helplessness, social withdrawal and anhedonia) than control mice following exposure to various stressful stimuli. Lentiviral 'rescue' of mGluR5 in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) decreased these depression-like behaviors in mGluR5 −/− mice. In the NAc, ΔFosB, whose induction promotes stress resilience, failed to be upregulated by stress in mGluR5 −/− mice. Notably, targeted pharmacological activation of mGluR5 in the NAc increased ΔFosB expression. Our findings point to an essential role for mGluR5 in promoting stress resilience and suggest that a defect in mGluR5-mediated signaling in the NAc may represent an endophenotype for stress-induced depression.