Increased sensitivity to cocaine place-preference conditioning by septal lesions in rats

Sex Differences in Context-Driven Reinstatement of Methamphetamine Seeking is Associated with Distinct Neuroadaptations in the Dentate Gyrus

The present study examined differences in operant responses in adult male and female rats during distinct phases of addiction. Males and females demonstrated escalation in methamphetamine (0.05 mg/kg, i.v.) intake with females showing enhanced latency to escalate, and bingeing. Following protracted abstinence, females show reduced responses during extinction, and have greater latency to extinguish compared with males, indicating reduced craving. Females demonstrated lower context-driven reinstatement compared to males, indicating that females have less motivational significance to the context associated with methamphetamine. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings on dentate gyrus (DG) granule cell neurons (GCNs) were performed in acute brain slices from controls and methamphetamine experienced male and female rats, and neuronal excitability was evaluated from GCNs. Reinstatement of methamphetamine seeking reduced spiking in males, and increased spiking in females compared to controls, demonstrating distinct neuroadaptations in intrinsic excitability of GCNs in males and females. Reduced excitability of GCNs in males was associated with enhanced levels of neural progenitor cells, expression of plasticity-related proteins including CaMKII, and choline acetyltransferase in the DG. Enhanced excitability in females was associated with an increased GluN2A/2B ratio, indicating changes in postsynaptic GluN subunit composition in the DG. Altered intrinsic excitability of GCNs was associated with reduced mossy fiber terminals in the hilus and pyramidal projections, demonstrating compromised neuroplasticity in the DG in both sexes. The alterations in excitability, plasticity-related proteins, and mossy fiber density were correlated with enhanced activation of microglial cells in the hilus, indicating neuroimmune responses in both sexes. Together, the present results indicate sexually dimorphic adaptive biochemical changes in excitatory neurotransmitter systems in the DG and highlight the importance of including sex as a biological variable in exploring neuroplasticity and neuroimmune changes that predict enhanced relapse to methamphetamine-seeking behaviors.

The role of hippocampal adult neurogenesis in methamphetamine addiction

One of the consequences of chronic methamphetamine (Meth) abuse and Meth addiction is impaired hippocampal function which plays a critical role in enhanced propensity for relapse. This impairment is predicted by alterations in hippocampal neurogenesis, structural- and functional-plasticity of granule cell neurons (GCNs), and expression of plasticity-related proteins in the dentate gyrus. This review will elaborate on the effects of Meth in animal models during different stages of addiction-like behavior on proliferation, differentiation, maturation, and survival of newly born neural progenitor cells. We will then discuss evidence for the contribution of adult neurogenesis in context-driven Meth-seeking behavior in animal models. These findings from interdisciplinary studies suggest that a subset of newly born GCNs contribute to context-driven Meth-seeking in Meth addicted animals.

Enlarged cavum septum pellucidum as a neurodevelopmental marker in adolescent-onset opiate dependence

Objective

Adolescent-onset exposure to highly addictive substances such as opiates may induce far-reaching deleterious effects on later mental and physical health. However, little is known about the neurodevelopmental basis for adolescent-onset opiate dependence. Here we examined whether having an abnormally large cavum septum pellucidum (CSP), a putative marker of limbic structural maldevelopment, is associated with opiate dependence particularly beginning in adolescence.

Method

The overall length of the CSP and the prevalence of abnormal enlargement of the CSP were assessed and compared in 65 opiate-dependent subjects (41 adolescent-onset opiate users and 24 adult-onset opiate users) and 67 healthy subjects.

Results

Opiate-dependent subjects showed a greater prevalence of abnormal CSP enlargement relative to healthy subjects (odds ratio [OR]=3.64, p=0.034). The overall CSP length of adolescent-onset opiate-dependent subjects was greater, as compared not only with healthy subjects (F_1,104=11.03, p=0.001) but also with those who began opiate use during adulthood (F_1,61=4.43, p=0.039).

Conclusions

The current findings provide the first evidence that abnormal CSP enlargement, which reflects limbic system dysgenesis of neurodevelopmental origin, may be linked to later development of opiate dependence. In addition, a greater CSP length, which indicates more severe limbic abnormalities, appears to confer higher risk for earlier onset of opiate use.

Chronic cannabinoid administration to periadolescent rats modulates the metabolic response to acute cocaine in the adult brain

PURPOSE

To analyze brain metabolic response to acute cocaine in male and female Wistar rats with or without a history of cannabinoid exposure during periadolescence.

PROCEDURES

The synthetic cannabinoid agonist CP 55,940 (CP) or its vehicle (VH), were administered to male and female rats during periadolescence. When these animals reached adulthood, saline and cocaine-induced changes in 2-deoxy-2-[¹⁸F]fluoro-D-: glucose (FDG) uptake were studied by positron emission tomography.

RESULTS

The baseline (post-saline) metabolism in the septal nuclei was higher in CP-females than in VH-females, although septal metabolism was lower in CP-females after cocaine, reaching similar values to those of VH-females at baseline. Cocaine did not affect metabolism in VH-females. Periadolescent cannabinoid treatment did not influence baseline metabolism in males although cocaine reduced the FDG uptake in the dorsal striatum of males that received the VH but not CP.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that cannabinoids during periadolescence modify baseline and cocaine-evoked brain metabolism in a sex-dependent manner. In the case of CP-females, the involvement of septal metabolic alterations in their susceptibility to the rewarding effects of cocaine should be further investigated.

Locomotion and self-administration induced by cocaine in 129/OlaHsd mice lacking galanin

Previous studies have demonstrated that the galanin system modulates responses to drugs of abuse such as morphine. The current study examined whether genetic deletion of galanin could affect the locomotor and reinforcing effects of cocaine in mice. We analyzed spontaneous motor activity and cocaine-induced hyperactivity in wild-type (GAL-WT) and knockout mice lacking galanin (GAL-KO) maintained on the 129/OlaHsd background. Our results indicate that cocaine enhanced locomotion (defined as moving more than 5 cm) dose-dependently in GAL-WT and GAL-KO mice. However, general activity (total beam breaks) was increased by cocaine only in GAL-WT mice. An additional experiment indicated that galnon, a nonselective galanin receptor agonist, did not affect cocaine-induced hyperactivity. In a second set of experiments, mice of both genotypes were trained to self-administer cocaine under a fixed ratio schedule, tested with various doses of cocaine and under different schedules of reinforcement. This set of experiments showed that cocaine self-administration did not differ markedly between genotypes. However, while GAL-WT mice acquired cocaine self-administration, a median split analysis showed that mice could be divided into large and small drug takers, whereas all GAL-KO mice behaved as small drug takers. Our results indicate that wild-type and galanin knockout mice on a congenic 129/OlaHsd background are responsive to the locomotor effects of cocaine and can acquire intravenous cocaine self-administration. However, the phenotype observed in GAL-KO mice does not support a major role for galanin in cocaine-induced hyperlocomotion and self-administration.

Influence of the dose and the number of drug-context pairings on the magnitude and the long-lasting retention of cocaine-induced conditioned place preference in C57BL/6J mice

RATIONALE

The place conditioning procedure is increasingly used to study relapse in drug seeking in mice. However, the retention course of drug-induced place preference has not been systematically characterized.

METHODS

The effects of cocaine doses and number of conditioning trials on both the magnitude and the persistence of cocaine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) were investigated in C57BL/6J mice. Twelve groups of animals were injected with saline, 4, 8 or 12 mg/kg cocaine (i.p.) and submitted to an unbiased counterbalanced place conditioning protocol including one, two or four drug-pairing sessions. Subsequently, the animals were tested at various time intervals after the last conditioning session.

RESULTS

One cocaine-pairing session was insufficient to induce a CPP. Two and four pairing sessions resulted in significant place preferences of similar magnitude for all tested doses of cocaine, the place preference induced by the greatest number of pairing sessions being the strongest. In the two-pairing groups, place preference lasted less than 14 days for any tested dose of cocaine. In contrast, all four-pairing groups still showed significant place preference 28 days after the last conditioning session. However, the magnitude of cocaine place preference slowly declined at a rate that was dependent upon cocaine dose. On the 35-day post-conditioning interval, only the 12-mg/kg cocaine group still displayed a significant place preference, whereas place preference was undetectable at 42 and 56 days post-conditioning for all groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The number of cocaine-pairing sessions, but not cocaine dose, affected the magnitude of cocaine place preference in mice when tested 1 day after the last conditioning session. In contrast, both cocaine doses and the number of pairing sessions affected the persistence of cocaine place preference. Overall, these results demonstrate that cocaine-induced place preference is a long lasting phenomenon that is strongly affected by the number of drug-pairing trials.

Involvement of cholinergic neuronal systems in intravenous cocaine self-administration

Recent studies suggest the participation of cholinergic neurons in the brain processes underlying reinforcement. The involvement of cholinergic neurons in cocaine self-administration has been recently demonstrated in studies using muscarinic and nicotinic agonists and antagonists, microdialysis, assessment of choline acetyltransferase activity and acetylcholine (ACh) turnover rates. The present experiment was initiated to identify subsets of cholinergic neurons involved in the brain processes that underlie cocaine self-administration by lesioning discrete populations with a selective neurotoxin. Rats were trained to self-administer cocaine and the cholinergic neurotoxin 192-IgG-saporin or vehicle was then bilaterally administered into the posterior nucleus accumbens (NAcc)-ventral pallidum (VP). The 192-IgG-saporin induced lesions resulted in a pattern of drug-intake consistent with either a shift in the dose intake relationship to the left or downward compared to sham-treated controls. A second experiment used a self-administration threshold procedure that demonstrated this lesion shifted the dose intake relationship to the left compared to the sham-vehicle treated rats. The magnitude and extent of the lesion was assessed by measuring the expression of p75 (the target for 192-IgG-saporin) and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) in the NAcc, VP, caudate nucleus-putamen (CP) and vertical limb of the medial septal nucleus-diagonal band (MS-DB) of these rats using real time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Significant reductions in gene expression for p75 (a selective marker for basal forebrain cholinergic neurons) and ChAT were seen in the MS-DB and VP while only small decreases were seen in the NAcc and CP of the 192-IgG-saporin treated rats. These data indicate that the overall influence of cholinergic neurons in the MS-DB and VP are inhibitory to the processes underlying cocaine self-administration and suggest that agonists directed toward subclasses of cholinergic receptors may have efficacy as pharmacotherapeutic adjuncts for the treatment of cocaine abuse.

The modulation of cocaine-induced conditioned place preferences by alcohol: effects of cocaine dose

Busse and Riley [Biol. Psychiatry 26 (2002) 1373] have recently reported that alcohol dose dependently attenuated cocaine-induced place preferences. Although the mechanism for this effect is not known, it is possible that it is due to alcohol potentiating the aversive properties of cocaine, a potentiation that masks or abates cocaine's rewarding effects in this preparation. Given that the affective properties of cocaine (both aversive and rewarding) have been reported to be dose dependent, it might be expected that alcohol's ability to affect cocaine-induced place preferences would be influenced by changes in cocaine dose. To address this possibility, the following experiments assessed the effects of alcohol (0.5 g/kg) on place preferences induced by high (20, 30 and 40 mg/kg: Experiment 1) and low (2.5 and 5 mg/kg; Experiment 2) doses of cocaine. Specifically, every other day for four cycles male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected with cocaine, alcohol or one of several cocaine/alcohol combinations immediately before being placed on one side of a two-compartment place preference chamber. On alternate days, they were placed on the other side of the chamber after being injected with the drug vehicle(s). In Experiment 1, all doses of cocaine (20, 30 and 40 mg/kg) produced a significant preference for the drug-paired compartment, whereas alcohol alone produced no effect. When given in combination, alcohol attenuated the cocaine-induced place preference (at 30 and 40 mg/kg cocaine). In Experiment 2, neither cocaine (2.5 or 5 mg/kg) nor alcohol produced a significant effect when given alone. However, animals receiving the combination of alcohol and cocaine (5 mg/kg) displayed a significant place preference. These findings indicate that alcohol can both weaken and strengthen cocaine-induced place preferences, possibly via its effects on the rewarding and aversive properties of cocaine. The effect of alcohol is dependent on the dose of cocaine.

Measuring reward with the conditioned place preference paradigm: a comprehensive review of drug effects, recent progress and new issues

This review gives an overview of recent findings and developments in research on brain mechanisms of reward and reinforcement from studies using the place preference conditioning paradigm, with emphasis on those studies that have been published within the last decade. Methodological issues of the paradigm (such as design of the conditioning apparatus, biased vs unbiased conditioning, state dependency effects) are discussed. Results from studies using systemic and local (intracranial) drug administration, natural reinforcers, and non-drug treatments and from studies examining the effects of lesions are presented. Papers reporting on conditioned place aversion (CPA) experiments are also included. A special emphasis is put on the issue of tolerance and sensitization to the rewarding properties of drugs. Transmitter systems that have been investigated with respect to their involvement in brain reward mechanisms include dopamine, opioids, acetylcholine, GABA, serotonin, glutamate, substance P, and cholecystokinin, the motivational significance of which has been examined either directly, by using respective agonist or antagonist drugs, or indirectly, by studying the effects of these drugs on the reward induced by other drugs. For a number of these transmitters, detailed studies have been conducted to delineate the receptor subtype(s) responsible for the mediation of the observed drug effects, particularly in the case of dopamine, the opioids, serotonin and glutamate. Brain sites that have been implicated in the mediation of drug-induced place conditioning include the 'traditional' brain reward sites, ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens, but the medial prefrontal cortex, ventral pallidum, amygdala and the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus have also been shown to play important roles in the mediation of place conditioning induced by drugs or natural reinforcers. Thus, although the paradigm has also been criticized because of some inherent methodological problems, it is clear that during the past decade place preference conditioning has become a valuable and firmly established and very widely used tool in behavioural pharmacology and addiction research.

Continued trends in the conditioned place preference literature from 1992 to 1996, inclusive, with a cross-indexed bibliography

In light of the overwhelming response to the previous publication in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews (1993, 17, 21-41) regarding trends in place conditioning (either preference or aversion), the present work constitutes a five-year follow-up to review the empirical research in this behavioral paradigm from 1992 to 1996, inclusively. The behavioral technique has grown as indicated by the number of publications over the last five years which equals those authored over the 35 years covered by our last survey. The previous work used descriptive statistics to explore topical issues, whereas the present work discusses trends since that time and hopes to provide an exhaustive bibliography of the CPP literature, including articles, published abstracts, book chapters and reviews, as well as providing a cross-index of identified key words/drugs tested.

The neurobiology of social play behavior in rats

Social play behavior is one of the earliest forms of non-mother-directed social behavior appearing in ontogeny in mammalian species. During the last century, there has been a lot of debate on the significance of social play behavior, but behavioral studies have indicated that social play behavior is a separate and relevant category of behavior. The present review provides a comprehensive survey of studies on the neurobiology of social play behavior. Evidence is presented that opioid and dopamine systems play a role in the reward aspect of social play behavior. The role of cholinergic, noradrenergic and opioid systems in attentional processes underlying the generation of social play behavior and the involvement of androgens in the sexual differentiation of social play behavior in rats is summarized. It is concluded that there is not only behavioral, but also neurobiological evidence to suggest that social play behavior represents a separate category of behavior, instead of a precursor for adult social, sexual or aggressive behavior.