Does drug abuse beget drug abuse? Behavioral analysis of addiction liability in animal models of prenatal drug exposure

Prenatal exposure to cocaine alters the development of conditioned place-preference to cocaine in adult mice

“…The neurobehavioral teratology literature remains controversial regarding the effects of prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse on later vulnerability to drug-seeking or drug-consuming behaviors: gestational exposure has been associated with increased, decreased, or unchanged behavioral sensitivity of exposed offspring to the effects of both contingent and non-contingent administration of drugs of abuse in adulthood (reviewed in Malanga and Kosofsky, 2003). It is appreciated that operantly and classically-conditioned behaviors rely upon different but interconnected sets of neural circuits (Berridge and Robinson, 2003), and significantly different effects of contingent versus non-contingent exposure to drugs of abuse on individual elements of those circuits have been well-documented (Jacobs et al, 2003).…”

“…Gestational exposure to drugs of abuse has been associated with alterations in reward perception and motivated behavior in adulthood, including altered rewarding potency of drugs of abuse (reviewed in Malanga and Kosofsky, 2003). Increased responsiveness in two operant behavioral models, intravenous self-administration of cocaine (Keller et al, 1996;Rocha et al, 2002) and potentiation of rewarding electrical self-stimulation by cocaine (Lin and Kellogg, 1996;Malanga et al, 2007), have been demonstrated in adult animals following early developmental exposure to cocaine.…”

Prenatal Stress Exposure Increases the Excitation of Dopamine Neurons in the Ventral Tegmental Area and Alters Their Reponses to Psychostimulants

“…In addition, the reversal effect on population activity by acute amphetamine is described after prenatal ethanol treatment (Xu and Shen, 2001). Results from both clinical and animal studies have shown that previous exposure to drugs of abuse lead to increased addiction risk (Malanga and Kosofsky, 2003;Spear and Molina, 2005). Therefore, the reduced VTA DA neuron population activity by overexcitation/depolarization block could be a common and critical cellular mechanism for increased addiction risk.…”

Cocaína prenatal y consumo de cocaína de ratones adultos jóvenes

“…Por su parte, el modelo de la actividad o sensibilización motora se enfoca en el incremento de la actividad motora después de la aplicación repetida de un estimulante; esta sensibilización motora indica vulnerabilidad al consumo de drogas (Estelles, Rodríguez-Arias, Maldonado, Aguilar, & Minarro, 2006b; Gancarz, 2011; Malanga & Kosofsky, 2003). Desde este modelo se ha encontrado que la EPC aumenta la vulneExisten numerosos estudios que muestran que los descendientes de padres adictos tienen alta probabilidad de llegar a ser adictos en la adolescencia o juventud temprana, tanto en animales como en humanos (Estelles et al, 2006;Glantz & Chambers, 2006;Malanga et al, 2007;Minnes et al, 2014;Richardson et al, 2013;Rocha et al, 2002).…”

“…El modelo de la Autoadministración Intravenosa incluye el implante de un catéter a los sujetos para acceder a la droga y el acceso está supeditado a la ejecución de una tarea; el valor reforzante de la droga se mide por la tasa de auto-administración (Gancarz, 2011;Mustaka & Kamenezky, 2006). Malanga & Kosofsky (2003) revisaron numerosos estudios realizados desde este modelo, y del mismo modo que con los modelos mencionados previamente, unos han encontrado una reducción de la potencia reforzante de la cocaína y otros, incremento después de la EPC. Con este modelo el sujeto tiene mayor control del consumo, pero está expuesto a situaciones alteradas por el implante de un catéter y la necesidad de aprender una tarea para administrarse la droga; o sea que no reproduce las condiciones del consumo de drogas en los humanos.…”