Short-term and delayed behavioral effects of pre- and post-weaning morphine in mice

Similar 5F-APINACA Metabolism between CD-1 Mouse and Human Liver Microsomes Involves Different P450 Cytochromes

In 2019, synthetic cannabinoids accounted for more than one-third of new drugs of abuse worldwide; however, assessment of associated health risks is not ethical for controlled and often illegal substances, making CD-1 mouse exposure studies the gold standard. Interpretation of those findings then depends on the similarity of mouse and human metabolic pathways. Herein, we report the first comparative analysis of steady-state metabolism of N-(1-adamantyl)-1-(5-pentyl)-1H-indazole-3-carboxamide (5F-APINACA/5F-AKB48) in CD-1 mice and humans using hepatic microsomes. Regardless of species, 5F-APINACA metabolism involved highly efficient sequential adamantyl hydroxylation and oxidative defluorination pathways that competed equally. Secondary adamantyl hydroxylation was less efficient for mice. At low 5F-APINACA concentrations, initial rates were comparable between pathways, but at higher concentrations, adamantyl hydroxylations became less significant due to substrate inhibition likely involving an effector site. For humans, CYP3A4 dominated both metabolic pathways with minor contributions from CYP2C8, 2C19, and 2D6. For CD-1 mice, Cyp3a11 and Cyp2c37, Cyp2c50, and Cyp2c54 contributed equally to adamantyl hydroxylation, but Cyp3a11 was more efficient at oxidative defluorination than Cyp2c members. Taken together, the results of our in vitro steady-state study indicate a high conservation of 5F-APINACA metabolism between CD-1 mice and humans, but deviations can occur due to differences in P450s responsible for the associated reactions.

Economical test methods for developmental neurobehavioral toxicity

The assessment of behavioral changes produced by prenatal or early postnatal exposure to potentially noxious agents requires both the designing of ad hoc tests and the adaptation of tests for adult animals to the characteristics of successive developmental stages. The experience in designing tests is still more limited than in the adaptation of tests, but several tests have already proven their usefulness; some examples are the suckling test, the homing test, and evaluations of dam-pup and pup-pup interactions. Functional observational batteries can exploit the development at specified postnatal ages of several reflexes and responses that are absent at birth in altricial rodent species with a short pregnancy such as the rat and the mouse. In neonates, the assessment of early treatment effects can rely not only on deviations from normal responding but also on changes in the time of appearance of otherwise normal response patterns. The same applies to other end points such as responses to pain and various types of spontaneous motor/exploratory activities, including reactivity to a variety of drug challenges that can provide information on the regulatory systems whose development may be affected by early treatments. In particular, the analysis of ontogenetic dissociations (i.e., differential early treatment effects depending jointly on developmental stage at the time of exposure, age of testing, and response end point) can be of considerable value in the study of treatments' mechanisms of action. Overall, it appears that behavioral teratological assessments can be effectively used both proactively, i.e., in risk assessment prior to any human exposure, and reactively. In the latter case, these assessments could have special value in the face of agents suspected to produce borderline changes in developing humans, whose innocuousness or noxiousness can be difficult to establish in the absence of hard evidence of teratogenicity.

Differential ontogenesis of thermal and mechanical antinociception induced by morphine and beta-endorphin

The antinociceptive effects induced by beta-endorphin and morphine given supraspinally have been previously demonstrated to be mediated by the activation of different neural mechanisms. The present experiments were to examine the effects of intraventricular administration of beta-endorphin and morphine in mechanical paw-withdrawal and thermal tail-flick nociceptive tests in rats of 2-28 days of age. 2-4-day-old neonates were not responsive to i.c.v. injection of beta-endorphin or morphine for the inhibition of the tail-flick response. The thermal antinociceptive responses induced by beta-endorphin and morphine started to develop in 7-14-day-old rats and continued to increase at 21-28 days. The inhibition of the mechanical paw-withdrawal response to beta-endorphin was already present in 2-day-old rats and morphine in 4-day-old rats. The mechanical antinociception progressively increased and reached a plateau at 7 days of age for beta-endorphin and 28 days of age for morphine. beta-Endorphin was found to be more efficacious than morphine in producing mechanical antinociception. The results demonstrate that beta-endorphin- and morphine-induced antinociception to mechanical and thermal stimuli develops differently and are consistent with the hypothesis that two descending pain inhibitory systems activated by beta-endorphin and morphine are differentially developed.

Prenatal cocaine potentiates the effects of morphine in adult mice

Prenatal cocaine exposure has been reported to result in abnormal neurobehavioral development, both in animals and humans. In this study, outbred CD-1 mice were exposed in utero to cocaine hydrochloride administered daily as i.p. injections to dams from day 10 of gestation to day 16, at the dose 0, 5 or 50 mg/kg. Cocaine did not alter duration of pregnancy while it decreased the difference in maternal body weight from days 10 to 16 in the dams receiving the higher dose of cocaine. The body weight of the offspring from birth to 15 days of age and the physical maturation were not affected by prenatal cocaine exposure. The development of the response to strong tactile stimulation was either slightly delayed in the 5 mg/kg group or markedly accelerated in the 50 mg/kg group. At adulthood, animals were assessed for behavioral responses to a novel environment, for response to painful stimulation (hot-plate test set at 55 +/- 1 degree C), and for the effects of a single morphine injection (30 mg/kg, i.p.). Data showed that in the absence of prenatal cocaine exposure effects, morphine increased the time spent in inactivity, while it decreased rearing, grooming and bar-holding behaviors. In the case of sniffing, morphine increased this behavior, except in the 5 mg/kg cocaine group. Moreover, morphine administration induced the expected increase of locomotion, irrespective of prenatal condition. With respect to pain reactivity, prenatal cocaine exposure resulted in an increase of licking latency in the 5 mg/kg group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Selective changes in mouse behavioral development after prenatal benzodiazepine exposure: a progress report

1. Animal studies of the effects of early exposure to CNS agents devoid of a major teratogenic potential must assess possible deviations from normal behavioral development in both a stage-specific and a behavior-specific fashion; several experiments on prenatal benzodiazepine (BDZ) exposure are reviewed, illustrating such an assessment strategy and discussing caveats on experimental designs and statistical analysis. 2. The offspring of mouse dams treated in late pregnancy with oxazepam (15 mg/kg p.o. twice daily on days 12-16) show a mild and reversible impairment in somatic and neurobehavioral development which is unlikely to be responsible for a series of other more specific changes. 3. The treatment produces a selective reduction of locomotor activity and amphetamine hyperactivity at the end of the second postnatal week, as well as a selective impairment of active avoidance at the young adult stage, in the absence of similar changes in scopolamine hyperactivity and passive avoidance. 4. The treatment also prevents the appearance at 28 days of morphine hyperactivity and of rebound hyperactivity after muscimol depression, without modifying the developmental profile of pain reactivity and of morphine and muscimol analgesia. 5. Young adult females previously exposed to oxazepam in utero show a marked enhancement of maternal aggression towards male intruders; mother-pup interactions are also modified, leading either to reduced or to exaggerated maternal care as a function of fostering procedures. 6. Overall, several effects of prenatal BDZ exposure appear to be amenable to modifications in monoaminergic system functions and/or to an accelerated development of GABAergic mechanisms; some of the changes in social and parental interactions, however, point to subtle modifications in the balance between different components of the fear-defensive repertoire, possibly due to an altered stimulus reactivity by mechanisms which are still poorly understood.

Analgesic effects of intraventricular and intrathecal injection of morphine and ketocyclazocine in the infant rat

Little is known of the neural bases of analgesia in immature animals. This experiment examined the effects of intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) and intrathecal (i.t.) administration of morphine or ketocyclazocine in tests of antinociception in rats aged 3 to 14 days of age. Analgesia tests were conducted using both thermal and mechanical (pressure) noxious stimuli applied to the forepaw, hindpaw or tail. In the 3-day-old morphine-injected i.c.v. produced analgesia in the forepaws when either the mechanical or thermal noxious stimulus was used. There was no effect when the hindpaw or tail was tested. At 10 days of age, when the mechanical stimulus was used, morphine was analgesic in tests on all three appendages but was only effective in the forepaw when the thermal stimulus was used. Morphine was fully effective in all tests with both stimuli at 14 days of age. Ketocyclazocine had no consistent effect when given i.c.v. When injected i.t., morphine produced analgesia in the forepaws in the thermal test at 4 days of age and in all appendages by 10 days. When the mechanical test was used, morphine was effective in all appendages at all ages tested. Ketocyclazocine was analgesic at all appendages for the mechanical stimulus at all ages but was only transiently effective in the thermal test. The results demonstrate differential development of analgesia mediated at different levels of the neural axis and are consistent with the development of descending inhibitory that may mediate analgesia induced by i.c.v. injections of morphine. Neural mechanisms that are involved in the analgesic effects of these drugs against the two types of stimuli are also developmentally distinct.

Ontogeny of muscimol effects on locomotor activity, habituation, and pain reactivity in mice

Three hundred and twenty mouse pups of both sexes of the CD-1 outbred strain received IP muscimol and were subsequently assessed for locomotor activity (single Varimex 30-min session) and for hot-plate responding. Muscimol doses were 0.05, 0.1, or 0.2 mg/kg at 8 and 14 days, and 0.1, 0.5, or 1.0 mg/kg at 21, 28, and 35 days. Activity data showed a shift from an immature pattern at 8 and 14 days to an adult-like pattern from day 21 onwards (high initial activity followed by a marked within-session decrement). Muscimol was ineffective on day 8, and depressed activity from day 14 onwards. At 28 days, however, the higher-dose male group showed a non-monotonic trend of activity; that is an initial depression followed by a marked rebound hyperactivity. With regard to hot-plate exposure, muscimol was ineffective at 8 days, while it produced maximal analgesic effects on day 14, followed by a progressive decrease in drug sensitivity. Around day 70, mice of the former 0.1 mg/kg and saline groups were re-tested for locomotor activity and pain reactivity without additional drug treatment. Activity was generally higher in males than in females, and two groups habituated significantly less than the others (females tested in the muscimol state at 8 days and males tested in the saline state at 35 days). Moreover, prior testing at the earliest ages and prior muscimol exposure had additive attenuating effects on pain reactivity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)