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Corticotropin-releasing factor: innocent until proven guilty

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 13, page 70 (2012)Cite this article

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The recent Review article by Heilig et al. (Pharmacogenetic approaches to the treatment of alcohol addiction. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 12, 670–684 (2011))1 expertly discussed strategies towards the development of therapeutics for alcoholism. However, we noticed a serious omission in their discussion of the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) system.

Although such information might be considered extraneous, we would like to correct a mistake in the authors' Review1 that highlights precisely why it is necessary to acknowledge all CRF system components. Heilig et al. claimed that “blockade of stress-induced relapse is in part mediated by CRF1 blockade in the median raphe nucleus (MRN)”, citing a 2002 study3. In fact, those experiments used the non-selective4 antagonist D-Phe CRF12-41, leaving in question whether this effect was mediated by CRF1 or CRF2. On the surface, the error appears to be minor. However, because the authors neglected to mention all CRF system components, they not only falsely implicated CRF1, but also implied that the underlying ligand must be CRF.

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Figure 1: Relationships among corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), urocortins and their targets.

References

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Acknowledgements

Authors are supported by US National Institutes of Health grants F31 AA021023 (W.J.G.) and AA013738, AA016647, AA010760 (A.E.R.).

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  1. William J. Giardino and Andrey E. Ryabinin are at the Department of Behavioural Neuroscience, Oregon Health and Science University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, Oregon 97219, USA.,

    William J. Giardino & Andrey E. Ryabinin

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Correspondence to Andrey E. Ryabinin.

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Giardino, W., Ryabinin, A. Corticotropin-releasing factor: innocent until proven guilty. Nat Rev Neurosci 13, 70 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3110-c1

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