Abstract
Acute stress could trigger maladaptive changes associated with stress-related cognitive and emotional deficits. Dysfunction of ion channel or receptor in the hippocampal area has been linked to the cognitive deficits induced by stress. It is known that Kv7 channel openers, including FDA-approved drug retigabine, show cognitive protective efficacy. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here we showed that exposing adult male rats to acute stress significantly impaired the spatial memory, a cognitive process controlled by the hippocampus. Concomitantly, significantly reduced AMPA receptor expression was found in hippocampal CA1 area from acute stressed rats. This effect relied on the down-regulation of deubiquitinating enzyme USP2 and its upstream regulators (PGC-1α and β-catenin), and the subsequent enhancement of mTOR-related autophagy which is regulated by USP2. These findings suggested that acute stress dampened AMPA receptor expression by controlling USP2-related signaling, which caused the detrimental effect on hippocampus-dependent cognitive processes. We also found that retigabine alleviated acute stress-induced spatial memory retrieval impairment through adjusting the aberrance of USP2, its upstream regulators (PGC-1α, E4BP4 and β-catenin) and its downstream targets (mTOR, autophagy and GluA1). Our results have identified USP2 as a key molecule that mediates stress-induced spatial memory retrieval impairment, which provides a framework for new druggable targets to conceptually treat stress-associated cognitive deficits.