Cocaine is one of the most abused psychostimulants known to man and as such, researchers have been steadfast in their attempts to understand the neurobiological mechanisms responsible for its abuse. Cocaine undoubtedly wreaks havoc on a number of mammalian neuronal neurotransmitter systems, and it is maintained that this dysregulatory effect supports cocaine abuse. Cocaine's mechanism of action has been well described. Cocaine binds differentially to the dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine transport proteins and directly prevents the reuptake of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine into pre-synaptic neurons (Heikkila et al., 1975, Biochem Pharmacol 24(8):847±852;Reith et al., 1986, Biochem Pharmacol 35(7):1123±1129; Ritz et al., 1987, Science 237:1219± 1223. Inhibition of re-uptake subsequently elevates the synaptic concentrations of each of these neurotransmitters. In addition to this direct effect, cocaine also produces a number of indirect actions, which alter other neuromodulatory systems (i.e., opioidergic, glutamatergic, and GABAergic systems). Many of these effects are just beginning to be elucidated, but nonetheless contribute to this agent's diverse pharmacological pro®le. Interestingly, it is the indirect actions of this melli¯uous molecule, which mediate most of its sought and unsought effects. The intricacy with which cocaine produces neuronal alterations beyond its direct effects on neurotransmitter re-uptake appear to be most relevant to cocaine abuse, and hence the phenomenon of addiction. In light of cocaine's multifarious effects on numerous neuronal systems, its effect on dopaminergic neurotransmission has attracted the most attention, particularly because of the implicated role of dopamine in brain reward. Pharmacologically, the psychostimulant effects of cocaine appear to be mediated by its ability to enhance dopaminergic activity within the mesocorticolimbic circuit (Roberts et al., 1977, Pharmacol Biochem Behav 6(6):615±620). Additionally, it is the intensity with which cocaine produces alterations in dopaminergic circuitry that have enabled this drug to prevail as one of the most addictive substances known to man. This review will summarize ®ndings relevant to cocaine-induced alterations in dopaminemediated signal transduction. Speci®cally, it will concentrate on the D 1 dopamine receptor and intracellular signaling mediated by this receptor subtype. It will describe cocaine-induced cellular and behavioral alterations relevant to this pathway and how these changes potentially effect gene transcription and protein expression. This article too will review a common behavioral manifestation associated with repeated cocaine exposure, sensitization, and why the D 1 dopamine receptor and its associated signaling pathway have been implicated in this phenomenon. Lastly, this article will discuss how targeting the D 1 dopamine receptor and its signaling pathway may offer some insight into understanding cocaine addiction, a somewhat elusive brain disease.

Clinically, pain is a complex phenomenon consisting of both sensory and affective aberrations that can persist indefinitely. Pre-clinically, several animal paradigms have been established that reliably mimic both the acute and chronic aspects of pain pertinent to the human condition; however, the commonly used behavioral models only assess the sensory component of pain elicited by an evoked nociceptive stimulus. Since the affective-motivational component of pain is an important determinant of the overall pain experience in man, we investigated how this aspect may be modeled long-term in rats using novel objects and a modified conditioned place aversion (CPA) paradigm. Findings demonstrate that animals subjected to either neuropathic injury or inflammatory insult display a significant conditioned place aversion to a pain-paired environment that is paralleled by an increased number of hind paw withdrawals and fewer number of novel object interactions during painful conditioning sessions. Moreover, this aversion is maintained for 1 month in the absence of further conditioning. We also determined that a non-analgesic, non-rewarding dose of morphine administered prior to pain-paired conditioning sessions attenuates the pain-induced aversion and its relative persistence in both pain models. Together, these findings underscore the importance of negative affect accompanying painful conditions and its long-term persistence even when the injury or insult has resolved. Lastly, these results suggest how both sensory and affective aberrations associated with neuropathic- and inflammatory-like conditions and the memory of such known to impact quality of life in man may be addressed pre-clinically in rodents.

Our findings suggest that the induction of acute seizures with PTZ, but not with MES, in animals pretreated with pilocarpine (regardless of SE induction) might constitute an effective and valuable method to screen AEDs and to study mechanisms involved in pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

These results suggest that activation of mu opioid receptors by endogenous opioids is an important contributor to cocaine-induced hyperactivity and the development of behavioral sensitization and conditioned reward.

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Dysregulation of hedonic processing, in which seeking of drug reward becomes more desirable than seeking natural rewards, like food, sex, and novelty, is a consequence of chronic drug exposure and potentially leads to escalating drug usage and addiction. Here, we investigated the effects of chronic cocaine treatment (10 days of escalating doses of cocaine, 10-30 mg/kg) and multiple forced abstinence periods (2, 3 or 5 weeks) on the acute rewarding properties of either cocaine (10 mg/kg) or novel-objects using the conditioned place preference procedure. Following all cocaine withdrawal periods, cocaine preference was significantly elevated while novel object preference was abolished compared with saline-treated rats. At the earliest withdrawal period, these behavioral changes were accompanied by elevations in FosB-like immunoreactive staining in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and nucleus accumbens shell (NAc-Sh) and core (NAc-C). FosB staining in all three brain areas correlated positively with cocaine preference, but negatively with novelty preference. After 5 weeks of withdrawal, FosB staining was only elevated in the NAc-Sh and again correlated positively with elevated cocaine preference but negatively with decreased novelty preference. These data indicate that alterations in the expression of FosB-like transcription factors in the NAc can predict the dysregulation of hedonic processing that occurs during protracted withdrawal from cocaine.

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