Histone deacetylase inhibitors, glutamatergic drugs and deep brain stimulation rescue resistance to fear extinction in a genetic mouse model

Background Impaired extinction of fear is a hallmark of a variety of disabling anxiety disorders including panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder and specific phobias. Therapeutic interventions that reverse deficits in fear extinction represent a tractable approach to treating these disorders. We recently revealed that 129S1/SvImJ (129S1) mice are unable to extinguish learned fear responses following ‘normal’ fear conditioning, establishing these mice as a clinically relevant model to identify extinction-facilitating targets.