Morphine-withdrawal aversive memories and their extinction modulate H4K5 acetylation and Brd4 activation in the rat hippocampus and basolateral amygdala.

Chromatin modification is a crucial mechanism in several important phenomena in the brain, including drug addiction. Persistence of drug craving and risk of relapse could be attributed to drug-induced epigenetic mechanisms that seem to be candidates explaining long-lasting drug-induced behaviour and molecular alterations. Histone acetylation has been proposed to regulate drug-seeking behaviours and the extinction of rewarding memory of drug taking.