Antagonism of corticotropin-releasing factor CRF 1 receptors blocks the enhanced response to cocaine after social stress

Prepulse Inhibition of the Startle Reflex as a Predictor of Vulnerability to Develop Locomotor Sensitization to Cocaine

“…Additionally, we considered it necessary to evaluate the motor effect of an acute dose of cocaine (10 mg/kg), as we expected that Low-PPI mice would display lower sensibility to the effects of cocaine than High-PPI mice, in accordance with the results in Arenas et al (2018). Although mice received a single dose of cocaine in the sensitization procedure, those in the control group had previously received a regime of saline injections, which could have created a stressful context that increased the sensibility of mice to the effects of cocaine (Ferrer-Pérez et al, 2018.…”

“…For this purpose, male and female OF1 mice were classified as High-or Low-PPI according to their baseline PPI levels. The motor effects induced by an acute dose of cocaine (10 mg/kg) and the development of motor sensitization induced by pre-exposure to this drug (Ferrer-Pérez et al, 2018) were then recorded. There are many procedures that can be performed to measure the motor activity of mice.…”

“…There are many procedures that can be performed to measure the motor activity of mice. In our laboratory, we primarily use two automatic methods to record the activity of animals in an open field: a computerized video-tracking system named Ethovision and an apparatus with infrared lights, namely, an actimeter (Blanco-Gandía et al, 2017;Ferrer-Pérez et al, 2018;García-Pardo et al, 2019). These two automatic procedures for measuring the motor activity of mice assess the different aspects of the motor response; the Ethovision program measures the distance traveled in cm by the animal, while the actimeter records both the horizontal and vertical activity of the mice.…”

Social defeat stress: Mechanisms underlying the increase in rewarding effects of drugs of abuse

“…Indeed, the results of preclinical research using CRF1 receptor antagonists are very promising. When administered before SD episodes, the CRF1 receptor antagonist CP‐154,526 reversed the effects of stress on cocaine‐induced CPP (Ferrer‐Pérez et al., ). When administered before physical stress (footshock), it blocked the reinstatement of cocaine CPP, while failing to block reinstatement induced by a priming dose of the drug (Lu, Liu, & Ceng, ).…”

“…On the other hand, the antagonism of CRF2 produces less consistent effects. Some researchers have found that blockade of CRF2 receptors with a peripheral peptidic antagonist induces a stress response comparable to the effect of SD on control animals and an enhancement of the effects of SD (Ferrer‐Pérez et al., ). In line with these reports, knockout CRFR2 mice have higher ACTH and corticosterone levels in the blood due to hypersensitivity of the stress system (Bale & Vale, ; Bale et al., ).…”