Distraction of olfactory bulb-medial prefrontal cortex circuit may induce anxiety-like behavior in allergic rhinitis

• Published in: PloS one 2019-09, Vol.14 (9), p.e0221978
• Main Authors: Salimi, Morteza, Ghazvineh, Sepideh, Zare, Meysam, Parsazadegan, Tannaz, Dehdar, Kolsum, Nazari, Milad, Mirnajafi-Zadeh, Javad, Jamaati, Hamidreza, Raoufy, Mohammad Reza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Action Potentials; Albumin; Allergic reactions; Allergic rhinitis; Allergies; Animal behavior; Animal models; Animals; Anxiety; Anxiety - physiopathology; Asthma; Behavior; Behavior, Animal; Biology and Life Sciences; Brain research; Chronic illnesses; Circuits; Cognition & reasoning; Complications and side effects; Connectome; Cortex (olfactory); Coupling; Disease Models, Animal; Disruption; Exploration; Hypersensitivity; Inflammatory diseases; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Nose; Olfaction; Olfactory bulb; Olfactory Bulb - physiopathology; Oscillations; Ovalbumin; Ovalbumin - adverse effects; Physiological aspects; Physiology; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - physiopathology; Psychological aspects; Rats; Research and Analysis Methods; Respiration; Respiratory tract; Rhinitis; Rhinitis, Allergic - chemically induced; Rhinitis, Allergic - physiopathology; Rhinitis, Allergic - psychology; Risk factors; Social Sciences; Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; Stress; Systematic review; Tetracyclines
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221978

Allergic rhinitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the upper respiratory tract, which is associated with high incidence of anxiety symptom. There is evidence that medial prefrontal cortex modulates anxiety-related behaviors and receives projections from olfactory bulb. Since olfactory dysfunction has been reported in allergic rhinitis, we aimed to evaluate anxiety-like behavior and oscillations of olfactory bulb-medial prefrontal cortex circuit in an animal model of allergic rhinitis. The number of open arm entries in elevated zero maze was significantly reduced in sensitized rats exposed to intranasal ovalbumin compared to the control group, which was indicating the enhancement of anxiety-like behavior in allergic rhinitis animals. Analysis of local field potentials in olfactory bulb and medial prefrontal cortex during immobility and exploration state showed that anxiety-like behavior induced by allergic rhinitis was in association with increased activity of medial prefrontal cortex and enhancement of olfactory bulb-medial prefrontal cortex coupling in delta and theta bands. Moreover, in allergic rhinitis animals, theta strongly coordinates local gamma activity in olfactory bulb and medial prefrontal cortex, which means to have a strong local theta/gamma coupling. We suggested that disruption of olfactory bulb-medial prefrontal cortex circuit due to allergic reactions might have a governing role for inducing anxiety-like behavior in the allergic rhinitis experimental model.