Select panicogenic drugs and stimuli induce consistent increases in tail skin flushes and decreases in core body temperature
Panic attacks (PAs) are episodes of intense fear or discomfort that are accompanied by a variety of both psychological and somatic symptoms. Panic induction in preclinical models (e.g. rats) has largely been assayed through flight and avoidance behavioral tests and cardiorespiratory activity. Yet, the literature pertaining to PAs shows that thermal sensations (hot flushes/heat sensations and chills) are also a common symptom during PAs in humans. Considering that temperature alterations are objectively measurable in rodents, we hypothesized that select panicogenic drugs and stimuli induce consistent changes in thermoregula...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - May 14, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: SHORT REPORTS Source Type: research
Dietary supplementation with fish oil reverses high fat diet-induced enhanced sensitivity to the behavioral effects of quinpirole
Consuming a high fat diet can lead to many negative health consequences, such as obesity, insulin resistance, and enhanced sensitivity to drugs acting on dopamine systems. It has recently been demonstrated that dietary supplementation with fish oil, which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, can prevent this high fat diet-induced enhanced sensitivity to dopaminergic drugs from developing. However, it is not known whether fish oil supplementation can reverse this effect once it has already developed. To test the hypothesis that dietary supplementation with fish oil will reverse high fat diet-induced enhanced sensitivity to quinp...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - May 14, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: SHORT REPORTS Source Type: research
The effect of nicotine and nicotine+monoamine oxidase inhibitor on the value of alcohol
Alcohol is the most commonly abused drug in the USA and many people suffer from alcohol use disorder. Many factors are associated with alcohol use disorder, but the causal role of comorbid nicotine use has not been extensively considered. Nicotine has reward-enhancing properties and may increase the value of alcohol. Monoamine oxidase inhibition increases nicotine self-administration and may increase the reward-enhancing effects of nicotine. We assessed the effect of nicotine and nicotine in combination with a commonly used monoamine oxidase inhibitor (tranylcypromine) on the value of alcohol using a progressive ratio sche...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - May 14, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: SHORT REPORTS Source Type: research
Sex differences in the effectiveness of buprenorphine to decrease rates of responding in rhesus monkeys
Sex differences in μ-opioid receptor (MOR) agonist-induced antinociception have been reported in nonhuman primates. The degree to which μ-opioid receptor agonist sex differences in nonhuman primates extend to other behavioral endpoints remains unknown. The present study compared the behavioral effects of three MOR ligands (fentanyl, buprenorphine, and naltrexone) that varied in efficacy to stimulate [35S]-GTPγS binding (from highest to lowest: fentanyl, buprenorphine, and naltrexone) in male and female rhesus monkeys. Male (n=3) and female (n=3) monkeys were trained to respond under a fixed-ratio 10 schedule of food pre...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - May 14, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: SHORT REPORTS Source Type: research
New procognitive enhancers acting at the histamine H3 and AMPA receptors reverse natural forgetting in mice: comparisons with donepezil and memantine in the object recognition task
This study evaluated the procognitive effects of S 38093 (a new inverse agonist of the histaminergic H3 receptor) and S 47445 (a new α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid) in 2–3-month-old Swiss mice as compared with donepezil and memantine, two main reference compounds in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The object recognition task allows the study of natural forgetting and is classically used in assessing drug effects on memory. Here, we show that mice exhibit significant object recognition at short (15 min) but not long (24 h) retention intervals separating the familiarization and recogniti...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - May 14, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
Olfaction in female Wistar rats is influenced by dopaminergic periglomerular neurons after nigral and bulbar lesions
Hyposmia is found in Parkinsonian patients decades before the onset of motor disorders. The same occurs with sleep disorders, especially infuencing rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which affect a large percentage of people who have Parkinson’s disease. These two disturbances presumably are closely related to a dopaminergic dysfunction. Therefore, we propose that selective lesions, induced by rotenone, of the periglomerular neurons within the olfactory bulb or of the nigrostriatal pathway could result in hyposmia. In addition, we hypothesized that REM sleep deprivation (REMSD) could have potential to generate a synergistic...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - May 14, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
Punishment and reinforcement by opioid receptor agonists in a choice procedure in rats
Intravenous (i.v.) drug self-administration remains the ‘gold standard’ for assessing abuse potential of drugs. Failure of a drug to maintain self-administration might indicate merely the absence of positive-reinforcing effects but might also indicate presence of aversive effects. Sensitivity to aversive effects is thought to affect the initiation and maintenance of drug use as well as relapse. Choice procedures are used to study positive-reinforcing effects of drugs and to a much lesser extent to study punishing effects of drugs. Experiment 1 compared the μ-opioid receptor agonist remifentanil (0.001–0.01 mg/kg/i...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - May 14, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
Dopamine and serotonin antagonists fail to alter the discriminative stimulus properties of ±methylenedioxymethamphetamine
This study aimed to determine effects of selective dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5HT) antagonists on the discriminative stimulus properties of AMPH (0.5 mg/kg) and MDMA (3.0 mg/kg). Separate groups of rats were trained to discriminate AMPH (0.5 mg/kg) or MDMA (3.0 mg/kg) from saline using a food-reinforced drug-discrimination procedure. Effects of DA (SCH 23390: 0.003–0.03 mg/kg and eticlopride: 0.03–0.3 mg/kg) or 5HT (ritanserin: 1.0–10.0 mg/kg, WAY-100635: 0.3–1.0 mg/kg and GR129375: 1.0–3.0 mg/kg) antagonists on the discriminative stimulus effects of both drugs were determined. Both DA antagon...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - May 14, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
Inhibition of experimental visceral pain in rodents by cebranopadol
The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of cebranopadol in two rodent models of visceral pain. Cebranopadol is a first-in-class analgesic with agonist activity at the nociceptin/orphanin FQ opioid peptide receptor and classical µ-, δ- and κ-opioid peptide receptors. Colitis was induced in Naval Medical Research Institute mice by intra-rectal infusion of mustard oil. The effects of intravenous cebranopadol pretreatment on spontaneous pain behaviours and referred allodynia and hyperalgesia were assessed. Pancreatitis was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats by intravenous administration of dibutyltin dichloride. A...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - May 14, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
Chronic clozapine treatment improves the alterations of prepulse inhibition and BDNF mRNA expression in the medial prefrontal cortex that are induced by adolescent social isolation
In this study, male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly assigned to either group-reared or isolation-reared conditions during postnatal days (PNDs) 21–34. During PNDs 46–55, the rats were subjected to chronic clozapine (1.0 mg/kg for 10 days) or saline treatment. On PND 56, all rats underwent behavioral testing and then were sacrificed for biochemical testing. The results indicated that adolescent social isolation induced impairments in prepulse inhibition and reversal learning, and clozapine injection improved the prepulse inhibition disruption but not reversal learning ability. Furthermore, clozapine administration r...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - May 14, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
Classic animal models of Parkinson’s disease: a historical perspective
The quest to better understand the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and to find new therapies to provide greater relief to affected patients continues. The use of animal models of PD has been invaluable in the process. Here, we review, through a historical lens, some of the contribution of the 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned rat and of the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine-lesioned nonhuman primate, in refining our understanding of PD and its treatment-related complications. We examine the mechanisms underlying the toxicity of 6-hydroxydopamine and 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine, and then e...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - May 14, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: REVIEW ARTICLE Source Type: research
Quercetin mitigates anxiety-like behavior and normalizes hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis function in a mouse model of mild traumatic brain injury
The objectives of this study were to determine whether quercetin treatment can attenuate anxiogenic-like behaviors and normalize HPA axis function in mice with mTBI. Animals subjected to mTBI were treated daily with quercetin (50 mg/kg) or diazepam (positive control, 3 mg/kg) for 14 days. Four behavioral tests (open field, plus maze, light-dark box, and zero maze) were used to assess anxiety-related behaviors in mice. To evaluate HPA axis function, adrenocorticotropic hormone and corticosterone were measured in the serum of mice after the anxiety tests. Quercetin treatment was found to significantly reduce anxiety-like...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - March 19, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
Early-life stress influences acute and sensitized responses of adult mice to cocaine by interacting with GABAA α2 receptor expression
Early-life stress (ELS) is known to exert long-term effects on brain function, with resulting deleterious consequences for several aspects of mental health, including the development of addiction to drugs of abuse. One potential mechanism in humans is suggested by findings that ELS interacts with polymorphisms of the GABRA2 gene, encoding α2 subunits of GABAA receptors, to increase the risk for both post-traumatic stress disorder and vulnerability to cocaine addiction. We used a mouse model, in which the amount of material for nest building was reduced during early postnatal life, to study interactions between ELS and exp...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - March 19, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
Early life exposure to cortisol in zebrafish (Danio rerio): similarities and differences in behaviour and physiology between larvae of the AB and TL strains
The objective of this study was therefore to assess the effects of increased levels of cortisol, mimicking thereby maternal stress, on larval physiology and behaviour. We studied the effects in two common zebrafish strains, that is, AB and Tupfel long-fin (TL), to assess strain dependency of effects. Fertilized eggs were exposed to a cortisol-containing medium (1.1 μmol/l) or control medium from 0 to 6 h following fertilization, after which at 5-day following fertilization, larval behaviour and baseline hypothalamus–pituitary–interrenal cells axis functioning were measured. The data confirmed earlier observed diff...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - March 19, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
Celecoxib potentiates the antianxiety and anticompulsive-like activity of fluoxetine against chronic unpredictable mild stress in experimental animals
Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is considered a heterogeneous anxiety disorder that includes compulsions. Celecoxib is considered an adjuvant to fluoxetine in the management of OCD in a clinical study. However, the experimental evidence is yet to be established. Therefore, the antianxiety and anticompulsive-like activity of celecoxib (20 mg/kg, orally) was evaluated in the presence or absence of fluoxetine (20 mg/kg, orally) in mice who were exposed to chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) for 14 consecutive days. Seven-day treatment of celecoxib significantly attenuated the CUMS-induced anxiety in open-field,...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - March 19, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
