Subtle differences in the discriminative stimulus effects of cocaine and GBR-12909

Contribution of monoaminergic mechanisms to the discriminative stimulus effects of 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) in Sprague-Dawley rats

RATIONALE

3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) is a popular synthetic cathinone reported to have a high abuse potential. Recent preclinical research indicates the psychopharmacology of MDPV is comparable to cocaine. Despite a recent influx of research on the psychopharmacology of MDPV, few studies have employed preclinical drug discrimination methods to discern the neurochemical mechanisms involved in its interoceptive stimulus effects.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to evaluate a variety of monoaminergic agents for substitution, potentiation, or antagonism in rats trained to discriminate MDPV.

METHODS

Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to discriminate 0.5 (experiment 1) or 1 mg/kg MDPV (experiment 2) from saline under an FR 20 schedule of food reinforcement. In experiment 1, MDMA, MDA, and their respective optical isomers (0.75-3 mg/kg), cocaine (2.5-20 mg/kg), GBR 12909 (5-40 mg/kg), and desipramine (3.2-10 mg/kg) were assessed for substitution. GBR 12909 (40 mg/kg) and desipramine (3.2 mg/kg) were subsequently assessed for potentiation of the MDPV cue. In experiment 2, stimulus antagonism tests were conducted with dopamine antagonists (Sch 23390, haloperidol) and serotonin antagonists (pirenperone, MDL100907, WAY 100635).

RESULTS

The MDMA and MDA enantiomers produced divergent results, with virtually no substitution by (-)-MDMA or (-)-MDA, partial substitution with (+)-MDA, and full substitution with (+)-MDMA, as well as full substitution by the racemates, (±)-MDMA and (±)-MDA. Consistent with previous findings, cocaine fully substituted for MDPV. Although no dose of GBR 12909 or desipramine substituted for MDPV, these reuptake inhibitors enhanced the discriminative stimulus effects of lower MDPV doses. Both D1 (Sch 23390) and D2 (haloperidol) DA antagonists attenuated 1 mg/kg MDPV discrimination, whereas none of the 5-HT antagonists assessed altered MDPV discrimination.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings indicate MDPV's interoceptive stimulus effects are mediated predominantly by dopaminergic actions, although serotonergic and/or noradrenergic modulation of these effects cannot be ruled out. Further investigations into the neurochemical actions involved in the discriminative stimulus effects of MDPV may serve to inform medication discovery and development for the treatment of MDPV abuse.

Discriminative Stimulus Effects of Psychostimulants

Numerous drugs elicit locomotor stimulant effects at appropriate doses; however, we typically reserve the term psychostimulant to refer to drugs with affinity for monoamine reuptake transporters. This chapter comprises select experiments that have characterized the discriminative stimulus effects of psychostimulants using drug discrimination procedures. The substitution profiles of psychostimulants in laboratory rodents are generally consistent with those observed in human and nonhuman primate drug discrimination experiments. Notably, two major classes of psychostimulants can be distinguished as those that function as passive monoamine reuptake inhibitors (such as cocaine) and those that function as substrates for monoamine transporters and stimulate monoamine release (such as the amphetamines). Nevertheless, the discriminative stimulus effects of both classes of psychostimulant are quite similar, and drugs from different classes will substitute for one another. Most importantly, for both the cocaine-like and amphetamine-like psychostimulants, dopaminergic mechanisms most saliently determine discriminative stimulus effects, but these effects can be modulated by alterations in noradrenergic and serotonergic neurotransmission as well. Thusly, the drug discrimination assay is useful for characterizing the interoceptive effects of psychostimulants and determining the mechanisms that contribute to their subjective effects in humans.

The Discriminative Stimulus Properties of Drugs Used to Treat Depression and Anxiety

Drug discrimination is a powerful tool for evaluating the stimulus effects of psychoactive drugs and for linking these effects to pharmacological mechanisms. This chapter reviews the primary findings from drug discrimination studies of antidepressant and anxiolytic drugs, including novel pharmacological mechanisms. The stimulus properties revealed from these animal studies largely correspond to the receptor affinities of antidepressant and anxiolytic drugs, indicating that subjective effects may correspond to either therapeutic or side effects of these medications. We discuss drug discrimination findings concerning adjunctive medications and novel pharmacologic strategies in antidepressant and anxiolytic research. Future directions for drug discrimination work include an urgent need to explore the subjective effects of medications in animal models, to better understand shifts in stimulus sensitivity during prolonged treatments, and to further characterize stimulus effects in female subjects. We conclude that drug discrimination is an informative preclinical procedure that reveals the interoceptive effects of pharmacological mechanisms as they relate to behaviors that are not captured in other preclinical models.

Predicting abuse potential of stimulants and other dopaminergic drugs: overview and recommendations

Examination of a drug's abuse potential at multiple levels of analysis (molecular/cellular action, whole-organism behavior, epidemiological data) is an essential component to regulating controlled substances under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). We reviewed studies that examined several central nervous system (CNS) stimulants, focusing on those with primarily dopaminergic actions, in drug self-administration, drug discrimination, and physical dependence. For drug self-administration and drug discrimination, we distinguished between experiments conducted with rats and nonhuman primates (NHP) to highlight the common and unique attributes of each model in the assessment of abuse potential. Our review of drug self-administration studies suggests that this procedure is important in predicting abuse potential of dopaminergic compounds, but there were many false positives. We recommended that tests to determine how reinforcing a drug is relative to a known drug of abuse may be more predictive of abuse potential than tests that yield a binary, yes-or-no classification. Several false positives also occurred with drug discrimination. With this procedure, we recommended that future research follow a standard decision-tree approach that may require examining the drug being tested for abuse potential as the training stimulus. This approach would also allow several known drugs of abuse to be tested for substitution, and this may reduce false positives. Finally, we reviewed evidence of physical dependence with stimulants and discussed the feasibility of modeling these phenomena in nonhuman animals in a rational and practical fashion. This article is part of the Special Issue entitled 'CNS Stimulants'.

Dopamine β-hydroxylase inhibitors enhance the discriminative stimulus effects of cocaine in rats

Inhibitors of dopamine β-hydroxylase (DBH), the enzyme that converts dopamine (DA) to norepinephrine (NE) in noradrenergic cells, have shown promise for the treatment of cocaine abuse disorders. However, the mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of these compounds have not been fully elucidated. We used the drug discrimination paradigm to determine the impact of DBH inhibitors on the interoceptive stimulus properties of cocaine. Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to discriminate cocaine (5.6 mg/kg) from saline using a multicomponent, food-reinforced discrimination procedure. On test days, subjects were pretreated with the nonselective DBH inhibitor disulfiram (0-100.0 mg/kg i.p.) or the selective DBH inhibitor nepicastat (0-56.0 mg/kg i.p.) 2 hours prior to a test session either alone or in combination with cumulatively administered cocaine (0-5.6 mg/kg i.p.). Neither disulfiram nor nepicastat substituted for the cocaine stimulus when tested up to doses that nonspecifically reduced responding. However, in combination studies, pretreatment with either disulfiram or nepicastat produced leftward shifts in the cocaine dose-response function and also conferred cocaine-like stimulus effects to the selective NE transporter inhibitor, reboxetine (0.3-5.6 mg/kg i.p.). These results indicate that pharmacological inhibition of DBH does not produce cocaine-like interoceptive stimulus effects alone, but functionally enhances the interoceptive stimulus effects of cocaine, possibly due to facilitated increases in DA released from noradrenergic terminals. These findings suggest that DBH inhibitors have low abuse liability and provide support to clinical reports that some subjective effects produced by cocaine, particularly aversive effects, are enhanced after DBH inhibition.

Neural response to lidocaine in healthy subjects

Recent studies suggest that some of cocaine's central nervous system (CNS) effects may be mediated through its sodium channel inhibiting local anesthetic properties. Local anesthetics that lack cocaine's strong affinity for the dopamine transporter (DAT) also produce sensory and mood effects, further suggesting a role for this neural pathway. Due to an absence of affinity at the DAT, the local anesthetic lidocaine may offer the potential to assess sodium channel activity in vivo in humans. To assess the utility of lidocaine as a CNS probe, we determined regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) following the intravenous administration of lidocaine (0.5 mg/kg) and compared this response to procaine (0.5 mg/kg and 1.0 mg/kg), a local anesthetic with partial affinity for the DAT, and saline. Infusions were administered in nine healthy female controls over a 10-day period with at least 2 days between each scan. Increased rCBF was observed following lidocaine, relative to saline, in the insula, caudate, thalamus, and posterior cingulate. Decreased rCBF was detected in a different region of the posterior cingulate. In general, increases in rCBF were more marked following lidocaine relative to procaine. Mood and sensory changes following lidocaine were limited and significantly less than those induced by either dose of procaine. There were no significant changes in blood pressure or heart rate following either medication. These findings suggest that lidocaine can be safely used to assess sodium channel function in persons with addictive and other psychiatric disorders.

Preclinical evaluation of the abuse potential of the analgesic bicifadine

The abuse liability of the analgesic bicifadine was investigated in animal models used to predict the abuse potential of psychostimulants in humans. Bicifadine, cocaine, d-amphetamine, bupropion, and desipramine were evaluated for the production of cocaine-like discriminative stimulus effects in rats. Cocaine, d-amphetamine, and bupropion dose-dependently and fully substituted for cocaine. Bicifadine and desipramine produced a maximum mean cocaine-lever selection of 80 and 69%, respectively, but doses yielding peak substitution strongly suppressed response rates. Microdialysis studies in normal waking rats indicated that d-amphetamine increased dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens and striatum to a much greater degree than bicifadine, but bicifadine increased 5-hydroxytryptamine levels in the nucleus accumbens and striatum more than d-amphetamine. Bicifadine was also tested for intravenous self-administration in rhesus monkeys experienced with cocaine administration. Reinforcing effects of bicifadine were observed in only two of four subjects, whereas cocaine, d-amphetamine, and bupropion served as reinforcers in all four monkeys. When evaluated under a progressive ratio procedure, no dose of bicifadine maintained responding to the extent of cocaine, d-amphetamine, or bupropion. The discriminative stimulus effects associated with bicifadine were similar, but not identical, to those of psychostimulants. Although bicifadine maintained self-administration behavior in some subjects, its reinforcing efficacy was very low relative to cocaine, d-amphetamine, and bupropion. These results are consistent with the microdialysis findings of lower dopamine levels and higher 5-hydroxytryptamine levels after administration of bicifadine relative to d-amphetamine. Overall, the current findings support a low abuse potential of bicifadine, more resembling that of antidepressants than psychostimulants.

Characterization of serotonin transporter in blood lymphocytes of rats. Modulation by in vivo administration of mitogens

Serotonin transporter sites were characterized in blood lymphocytes of rats. Pharmacological characteristics of drug interactions were in concordance with recent studies in nervous and human immune cells. The potency order of inhibition of [(3)H]paroxetine binding was imipramine>citalopram>alaproclate>serotonin. Selective inhibitors of dopamine or noradrenaline transporters did not inhibit it. The specific binding of [(3)H]paroxetine was higher at intermediate than at low concentrations, and the plot of free vs. specific binding had a sigmoid shape. The affinity constant or K(d), 1.77 nM, was in close agreement with data obtained from kinetic studies (K(d)=1.33 nM), which evidences that the equilibrium was reached. In addition, serotonin transporter was evaluated by lipopolysaccharide or concanavalin A administration in vivo (0.1 mg/kg, i.p., 18 h). After the treatment with lipopolysaccharide, no changes were observed in the numbers of sites or B(max) or in the affinity, K(d). The treatment with concanavalin A showed a significant reduction in B(max) and reduction in K(d). Additionally, serotonin and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid levels were determined in plasma and lymphocytes by high-performance liquid chromatography. Treatment with lipopolysaccharide produced a significant increased of serotonin levels in lymphocytes without changes in 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid level; in plasma, it produced an increase in serotonin and 5-hydroxyindolacetic acid levels. In addition, serotonin synthesis was evaluated by adding 300 microM of tryptophan in the medium, which significantly increased serotonin levels in control lymphocytes. Moreover, the concentrations of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid was enhanced significantly, both in plasma and lymphocytes in the presence of tryptophan after treatment with lipopolysaccharide. The administration of concanavalin A significantly decreased plasma levels of serotonin, as well as the concentrations of serotonin and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in lymphocytes. These results demonstrate the presence of serotonin transporter in lymphocytes of rat blood, the capacity for serotonin synthesis in lymphocytes, and the modulation of these parameters by systemic administration of mitogens. The findings of this work contribute to understanding the immunological role of serotonin and the communication of immune and nervous systems.

Cocaine and amphetamine attenuate the discriminative stimulus effects of naltrexone in opioid-dependent rhesus monkeys

This study tested the hypothesis that stimulants (indirect dopamine agonists) attenuate the discriminative stimulus of naltrexone in monkeys chronically treated with L-alpha-acetylmethadol (LAAM). Four rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) received LAAM (1.0 mg/kg s.c.) twice daily and discriminated a withdrawal-precipitating dose of naltrexone (0.0178 mg/kg s.c.) from saline. Cocaine (0.1-1.78 mg/kg), amphetamine (0.32-1.78 mg/kg), haloperidol (0.01-0.1 mg/kg), sulpiride (1.0-10.0 mg/kg), propranolol (0.32-3.2 mg/kg), clonidine (0.001-0.1 mg/kg), desipramine (0.32-3.2 mg/kg), and imipramine (1.0-10.0 mg/kg) were given s.c. before cumulative doses of naltrexone. Cocaine and amphetamine antagonized the discriminative stimulus effects of naltrexone, each shifting the naltrexone dose-effect curve significantly (e.g., 100-fold) rightward or downward. In contrast, the dopamine antagonist haloperidol shifted the naltrexone dose-effect curve 5-fold leftward. Sulpiride, desipramine, clonidine, and propranolol had comparatively less effect on the naltrexone discriminative stimulus, whereas some doses of imipramine attenuated the naltrexone stimulus in a manner similar to that of cocaine and amphetamine. These results support the notion that multiple neurotransmitter systems are involved in the discriminative stimulus effects of opioid withdrawal. Furthermore, these data are consistent with reports that dopamine levels decrease during opioid withdrawal and provide evidence that enhancing dopamine or other monoamine levels may attenuate subjective effects of opioid withdrawal.