Stress contributes to the reinstatement of cocaine-seeking behavior in abstinent subjects. Kappaopioid receptor antagonists attenuate the behavioral effects of stress, potentially providing therapeutic value in treating cocaine abuse. Presently, the peptide arodyn produced long-lasting kappa-opioid receptor antagonism, suppressing kappa-opioid receptor agonist-induced antinociception at least 3 days after intracerebroventricular administration of 0.3 nmol. C57Bl/6J mice demonstrated cocaine-conditioned place preference, extinction over 3 weeks, and a subsequent reinstatement of place preference. Arodyn pretreatment suppressed stress-induced, but not cocaineexposed, reinstatement of cocaine place preference. These results verify that arodyn and other kappaopioid receptor antagonists may be useful therapeutics for cocaine abuse.

HIV-Tat protein has been implicated in the pathogenesis of HIV-1 neurological complications (i.e., neuroAIDS), but direct demonstrations of the effects of Tat on behavior are limited. GT-tg mice with a doxycycline (Dox)-inducible and brain-selective tat gene coding for Tat protein were used to test the hypothesis that the activity of Tat in brain is sufficient to impair learning and memory processes. Western blot analysis of GT-tg mouse brains demonstrated an increase in Tat antibody labeling that seemed to be dependent on the dose and duration of Dox pretreatment. Dox-treated GT-tg mice tested in the Barnes maze demonstrated longer latencies to find an escape hole and displayed deficits in probe trial performance, versus uninduced GT-tg littermates, suggesting Tat-induced impairments of spatial learning and memory. Reversal learning was also impaired in Tat-induced mice. Tat-induced mice additionally demonstrated long-lasting (up to one month) deficiencies in novel object recognition learning and memory performance. Furthermore, novel object recognition impairment was dependent on the dose and duration of Dox exposure, suggesting that Tat exposure progressively mediated deficits. These experiments provide evidence that Tat protein expression is sufficient to mediate cognitive abnormalities seen in HIV-infected individuals. Moreover, the genetically engineered GT-tg mouse may be useful for improving our understanding of the neurological underpinnings of neuroAIDS-related behaviors.

These data demonstrated a stress-induced potentiation of the rewarding effects and self-administration of ethanol mediated by KOR signaling.

No abstract

Age-related diseases of the brain compromise memory, learning, and movement and are directly linked with increases in oxidative stress and inflammation. Previous research has shown that supplementation with berries can modulate signaling in primary hippocampal neurons or BV-2 mouse microglial cells. Because of their high polyphenolic content, fruit pulp fractions of açai ( Euterpe oleracea Mart.) were explored for their protective effect on BV-2 mouse microglial cells. Freeze-dried açai pulp was fractionated using solvents with different polarities and analyzed using HPLC for major anthocyanins and other phenolics. Fractions extracted using methanol (MEOH) and ethanol (ETOH) were particularly rich in anthocyanins such as cyanidin, delphinidin, malvidin, pelargonidin, and peonidin, whereas the fraction extracted using acetone (ACE) was rich in other phenolics such as catechin, ferulic acid, quercetin, resveratrol, and synergic and vanillic acids. Studies were conducted to investigate the mitigating effects of açai pulp extracts on lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 100 ng/mL) induced oxidative stress and inflammation; treatment of BV-2 cells with acai fractions resulted in significant (p < 0.05) decreases in nitrite production, accompanied by a reduction in inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression. The inhibition pattern was emulated with the ferulic acid content among the fractions. The protection of microglial cells by açai pulp extracts, particularly that of MEOH, ETOH, and ACE fractions, was also accompanied by a significant concentration-dependent reduction in cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38-MAPK), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα), and nuclear factor κB (NF-κB). The current study offers valuable insights into the protective effects of açai pulp fractions on brain cells, which could have implications for improved cognitive and motor functions.

No abstract

We hypothesized that mice subjected to prolonged stress would demonstrate decreased performance in a learning and memory task attributable to the endogenous activation of the opioid receptor (KOR). C57BL/6J mice were tested using the novel object recognition (NOR) assay at various time points after exposure to repeated forced swim stress (FSS). Unstressed mice demonstrated recognition of the novel object at the end of a procedure using three 10-min object interaction phases, with a recognition index (RI) for the novel object of 71.7 Ϯ 3.4%. However, 1 h after exposure to FSS, vehicle-pretreated mice displayed a significant deficit in performance (RI ϭ 58.

Cognitive impairment in age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease may be partly due to long-term exposure and increased susceptibility to inflammatory insults. In the current study, we investigated whether polyphenols in blueberries can reduce the deleterious effects of inflammation induced by central administration of kainic acid by altering the expression of genes associated with inflammation. To this end, 4-month-old male Fischer-344 (F344) rats were fed a control, 0.015% piroxicam (an NSAID) or 2% blueberry diet for 8 weeks before either Ringer's buffer or kainic acid was bilaterally micro-infused into the hippocampus. Two weeks later, following behavioral evaluation, the rats were killed and total RNA from the hippocampus was extracted and used in real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) to analyze the expression of inflammation-related genes. Kainic acid had deleterious effects on cognitive behavior as kainic acid-injected rats on the control diet exhibited increased latencies to find a hidden platform in the Morris water maze compared to Ringer's buffer-injected rats and utilized non-spatial strategies during probe trials. The blueberry diet, and to a lesser degree the piroxicam diet, was able to improve cognitive performance. Immunohistochemical analyses of OX-6 expression revealed that kainic acid produced an inflammatory response by increasing the OX-6 positive areas in the hippocampus of kainic acid-injected rats. Kainic acid up-regulated the expression of the inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNF-α, the neurotrophic factor IGF-1, and the transcription factor NF-κB. Blueberry and piroxicam supplementations were found to attenuate the kainic acid-induced increase in the expression of IL-1β, TNF-α, and NF-κB, while only blueberry was able to augment the increased IGF-1 expression. These results indicate that blueberry polyphenols attenuate learning impairments following neurotoxic insult and exert anti-inflammatory actions, perhaps via alteration of gene expression.