Adenosine A2A Receptors in Striatal Glutamatergic Terminals and GABAergic Neurons Oppositely Modulate Psychostimulant Action and DARPP-32 Phosphorylation

Adenosine A2A receptors (A2AR) are located postsynaptically in striatopallidal GABAergic neurons, antagonizing dopamine D2 receptor functions, and are also located presynaptically at corticostriatal terminals, facilitating glutamate release. To address the hypothesis that these two A2AR populations differently control the action of psychostimulants, we characterized A2AR modulation of cocaine-induced effects at the level of DARPP-32 phosphorylation at Thr-34 and Thr-75, c-Fos expression, and psychomotor activity using two lines of cell-type selective A2AR knockout (KO) mice with selective A2AR deletion in GABAergic neurons (striatum-A2AR-KO mice), or with A2AR deletion in both striatal GABAergic neurons and projecting cortical glutamatergic neurons (forebrain-A2AR-KO mice). We demonstrated that striatum-A2AR KO mice lacked A2ARs exclusively in striatal GABAergic terminals whereas forebrain-A2AR KO mice lacked A2ARs in both striatal GABAergic and glutamatergic terminals leading to a blunted A2AR-mediated facilitation of synaptosomal glutamate release. The inactivation of A2ARs in GABAergic neurons reduced striatal DARPP-32 phosphorylation at Thr-34 and increased its phosphorylation at Thr-75. Conversely, the additional deletion of corticostriatal glutamatergic A2ARs produced opposite effects on DARPP-32 phosphorylation at Thr-34 and Thr-75. This distinct modulation of DARPP-32 phosphorylation was associated with opposite responses to cocaine-induced striatal c-Fos expression and psychomotor activity in striatum-A2AR KO (enhanced) and forebrain-A2AR KO mice (reduced). Thus, A2ARs in glutamatergic corticostriatal terminals and in GABAergic striatal neurons modulate the action of psychostimulants and DARPP-32 phosphorylation in opposite ways. We conclude that A2ARs in glutamatergic terminals prominently control the action of psychostimulants and define a novel mechanism by which A2ARs fine-tune striatal activity by integrating GABAergic, dopaminergic and glutamatergic signaling.