To our knowledge, these results provide the first evidence in humans linking NPY with salience sensitivity of the NAc, raising the possibility that individual differences in NPY expression moderate the risk for disorders of mesoaccumbal function such as addictions and mood disorders.
The potential role of altered HPA axis, epigenetics, NPY, BDNF, neurosteroid biosynthesis, the endocannabinoid system, and their function as biomarkers for mood disorders is discussed.
These functions of NPY, in addition to the peptide's regulation of disease states, suggest that modulation of the activity of the NPY system <i>via</i> receptor agonists/antagonists may be a putative treatment mechanism in affective disorders as well as alcohol use disorders.
A wealth of data indicates that neuropeptides, e.g., NPY, CRH, somatostatin, tachykinins and CGRP play a role in affective disorders and alcohol use/abuse.
For example, NPY is consistently involved in anxiety-related behaviors and there is increasing support for a role of this peptide in mood disorders such as depression.
The restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) associated with neuropeptide Y (NPY) and somatostatin loci were used to assess the possibility of linkage to a locus for affective disorder (AD).