Preclinical studies on comorbidity between depression and psychostimulant addiction

Olfactory Bulbectomy Model of Depression Lowers Responding for Food in Male and Female Rats: The Modulating Role of Caloric Restriction and Response Requirement

Depression is a psychiatric disorder characterized by a marked decrease in reward sensitivity. By using the olfactory bulbectomy (OBX) model of depression, it was shown that OBX rats display enhanced drug-taking and seeking behaviors in a self-administration paradigm than sham-operated (SHAM) controls, and sex is an important regulating factor. To reveal potential strain effects, we compared the operant behavior of male and female Sprague-Dawley and Wistar OBX and SHAM rats trained to self-administer palatable food pellets. Results showed that Sprague-Dawley OBX rats of both sexes exhibited lower operant responding rates and food intake than SHAM controls. Food restriction increased responding in both OBX and SHAM groups. Female rats responded more than males, but the OBX lesion abolished this effect. In Wistar rats, bulbectomy lowered food self-administration only during the last training days. Food self-administration was not significantly affected in Wistar rats by sex. In summary, this study showed that bulbectomy significantly reduces operant responding and food intake in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats while inducing a mild reducing effect only in the Wistar strain. Strain-dependent effects were also observed in the modulating role of sex and food restriction on operant responding and palatable food intake.

Depressive-like phenotype enhances relapse of nicotine seeking after forced abstinence in rats

OBJECTIVE

Comorbidity of depression and drug addiction is common, but effective treatment is missing. A rat model combining the olfactory bulbectomy (OBX) model and IV drug self-administration has provided evidence of differential reactivity of the OBX rats towards drugs of abuse. This study evaluates nicotine taking and seeking behaviour in this model.

METHODS

Adult male Wistar rats were used; in one group, the OBX was performed while the other group was sham-operated. After three weeks of nicotine self-administration (fixed ratio-1 schedule), rats underwent two weeks of forced abstinence followed by a drug-free relapse-like session. Two doses of nicotine were studied: 0.019 and 0.030 mg/kg per infusion. The locomotor test took place before the self-administration protocol and on the first day of abstinence.

RESULTS

OBX induced characteristic hyperactive locomotor phenotype. OBX rats self-administered more nicotine in the experiment using 0.019 mg/kg per infusion, but they reached lower drug intake in the study using 0.030 mg/kg per infusion. However, relapse of nicotine seeking after forced abstinence was significantly higher in the OBX groups in both cohorts.

CONCLUSION

These results are in line with previous studies showing OBX-induced dissimilarities in drug-seeking and drug-taking and represent complementary information to reports on other substances.

Brief Maternal Separation Inoculates Against the Effects of Social Stress on Depression-Like Behavior and Cocaine Reward in Mice

Exposure to intermittent repeated social defeat (IRSD) increases the vulnerability of mice to the rewarding effects of cocaine in the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm. According to the "inoculation of stress" hypothesis, a brief period of maternal separation (MS) can provide protection against the negative effects of IRSD. The aim of the present study was to assess whether exposure to a brief episode of MS prevents the subsequent short-term effects of IRSD on depression- and anxiety-like behaviors and to explore its long-term effects on cocaine CPP in mice. Four groups of male C57BL/6 mice were employed; two groups were separated from their mother [6 h on postnatal day (PND) 9], while the other two groups were not (controls). On PND 47, 50, 53 and 56, mice that had experienced MS were exposed to social defeat in the cage of an aggressive resident mouse (MS + IRSD group) or were allowed to explore an empty cage (MS + EXPL group). The same procedure was performed with control mice that had not experienced MS (CONTROL + IRSD and CONTROL + EXPL groups). On PND57-58, all the mice performed the elevated plus maze and the hole-board, social interaction and splash tests. Three weeks after the last episode of defeat, all the mice underwent the CPP procedure with cocaine (1 mg/kg). Irrespective of whether or not MS had taken place, a reduction in open arms measures, dips, and social interaction was observed in mice that experienced IRSD. A higher latency of grooming and acquisition of cocaine-induced CPP were observed only in mice exposed to IRSD alone (CONTROL + IRSD). These results suggest that exposure to a brief episode of stress early in life increases the subsequent resilience of animals to the effects of social stress on vulnerability to cocaine.

The impact of GABAB receptors and their pharmacological stimulation on cocaine reinforcement and drug-seeking behaviors in a rat model of depression

Depression and cocaine use disorder represent frequent co-current diagnoses and the GABA_B receptors are involved in both conditions. This research involved the application of the animal model of depression (bulbectomy, OBX) and cocaine use disorder (self-administration) to assess the efficiency of GABA_B receptor agonists, baclofen and SKF-97541, on cocaine rewarding property and reinforcement of seeking-behaviors in rats with depressive phenotype. Additionally, we applied immunoreactive techniques to determine changes in the expression of GABA_B receptor subunit 1 and 2 in rats with depression and cocaine addiction. The results obtained the study illustrate that the GABA_B receptor agonists reduced the rewarding property of cocaine in both OBX and control (SHAM) rats. Both agonists significantly reduced cue- and cocaine-induced reinstatement in both groups. This is the first report demonstrating a different impact of cocaine abuse on GABA_B receptor levels in depressed animals. It was documented that the expression of GABA_B1 subunit in the infralimbic cortex increased during self-administration and extinction training in OBX animals. The lower level of expression for this subunit in addictive SHAM rats during self-administration, and increased in extinguished addictive OBX rats was found in the ventrolateral striatum. The expression of GABA_B2 subunit changed only in the case of cocaine self-administration paradigm, as a decline of the subunit level in the nucleus accumbens and ventral hippocampus was observed only in OBX rats. The relevance of GABA_B receptors in depression and addiction comorbidity is clearly implicated and can open a new era of drug discovery for individuals with dual diagnosis.

Within-animal comparisons of novelty and cocaine neuronal ensemble overlap in the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex

Novelty seeking is a personality trait associated with an increased vulnerability for substance abuse. In rodents, elevated novelty seeking has been shown to be a predictor for elevated drug self-administration and compulsive use. While previous studies have shown that both novelty and drugs of abuse have actions within similar mesocorticolimbic regions, little is known as to whether the same neural ensembles are engaged by these two stimuli. Using the TetTag mouse model and Fos immunohistochemistry, we measured neurons engaged by novelty and acute cocaine exposure, respectively in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and nucleus accumbens (NAc). While there was no significant impact of novelty exposure on the size of the EGFP+ ensemble, we found that cocaine engaged significantly more Fos+ neurons in the NAc, while stress increased the size of the Fos+ ensemble in the PFC. Analysis of ensemble reactivation was specific to the emotional valence of the second stimuli. We found that a greater proportion of the EGFP+ ensemble was reactivated in the groups that paired novelty with a positive (cocaine) or neutral (saline) experience in the NAc, while the novelty/stress paired groups exhibited significantly less ensemble overlap in the PFC. However, only in the NAc shell was this increase in ensemble overlap specific to those exposed to both novelty and cocaine. This suggests that the NAc shell, but not the NAc core or PFC, may play an important role in general reward processing by engaging a similar network of neurons.

Adolescent cocaine exposure enhanced negative affect following drug re-exposure in adult rats: Attenuation of c-Fos activation

BACKGROUND

The goal of the present study was to utilize the adolescent drug experience as an emerging vulnerability factor for developing psychiatric comorbidities in adulthood that could, in turn, help to elucidate and/or hypothesize possible mechanisms contributing to higher relapse rates.

OUTCOMES

The current results showed that adolescent cocaine exposure (15 mg/kg, intraperitoneally, seven days) during early-mid adolescence (postnatal days 33-39) enhanced negative affect in adulthood, by increasing behavioral despair following drug re-exposure and by increasing anhedonia. Thus, these behavioral data provided a good model to further ascertain the long-term cellular and molecular adaptations that might take place in the brain in response to adolescent cocaine exposure as well as the impact of drug re-exposure in adulthood. In this regard, the results showed that adolescent cocaine exposure did not modulate cell proliferation (Ki-67+ cells) or c-Fos protein activation in the dentate gyrus region of the hippocampus, but attenuated c-Fos activation in the dorsal striatum.

CONCLUSIONS

These results proved that a history of cocaine exposure during adolescence increased the vulnerability to induce negative affect (i.e. emergence of psychiatric comorbidity) in adulthood while it decreased neuronal activation in the dorsal striatum. Interestingly, these effects were only observed following cocaine re-exposure in adulthood, suggesting that avoiding drug contact in adulthood could prevent the long-term negative effects induced by adolescent cocaine.

Sex and Feeding Status Differently Affect Natural Reward Seeking Behavior in Olfactory Bulbectomized Rats

Substance abuse and depression are common psychiatric disorders with a high rate of comorbidity. Both conditions affect differently men and women and preclinical research has showed many sex differences in drug addiction and depression. The most common approach for modeling depression-addiction comorbidity is the combination of the intravenous drug self-administration and the olfactory bulbectomy (OBX) models in rats. Such a combination has revealed enhanced drug-taking and drug-seeking behaviors in OBX rats, but no study has investigated so far potential sex differences in operant responding and motivation for natural reinforcers in OBX rats. This study investigated for the first time operant self-administration of palatable food pellets in male and female OBX rats under different feeding status, i.e., ad libitum vs. restricted food, and schedules of reinforcement, i.e., a continuous ratio schedule fixed ratio 1 (FR1) vs. a complex (FR5_(x)) second order schedule of reinforcement. In the FR1 experiment, OBX rats of both sexes exhibited lower operant responding and intake of palatable food pellets than sham-operated controls, with food restriction leading to increased operant responding in both OBX and SHAM groups. Female rats showed higher responding than males but this effect was abolished by the OBX lesion. Similarly, in the (FR5_(x)) second order schedule of reinforcement both male and female OBX rats showed lower responding and food intake, with SHAM and OBX females showing higher operant responding than corresponding male groups. Overall, our findings showed that: (i) responding for food was lower in OBX than in SHAM rats under both FR1 and (FR5_(x)) schedules of reinforcement; (ii) sex and food restriction affect operant responding for palatable food; and (iii) the suppressing effect of OBX lesion on food intake was consistently present in both sexes and represents the most robust factor in the analysis. This may represent anhedonia which is associated with depressive-like phenotype and palatable food self-administration may serve as a robust behavioral index of anhedonia in the OBX model.

Olfactory Bulbectomy in Methamphetamine-Treated Rat Mothers Induces Impairment in Somatic and Functional Development of Their Offspring

Olfactory bulbectomy in rodents is considered a putative model of depression. Depression is often associated with drug addiction. Our previous studies demonstrated that methamphetamine (MA) administration to rat mothers affects both, mothers and their pups. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of bulbectomy, as a model of depression, and MA administration on behavior of rat mothers and postnatal development of their pups. Adult female Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups: bulbectomized (OBX) and sham-operated (SH). A period of 20 days was allowed for the development of the depressive-like phenotype. Animals were tested in the motor activity test and 2 % sucrose preference for anhedonia and hyperactive locomotor response to a novel environment, respectively. After then females were impregnated. Pregnant females were exposed to daily subcutaneous (s.c.) injection of MA (5 mg/kg) or saline (SA) during the entire gestation period. Postnatally, maternal behavior and pup development was examined. The effect of a challenge dose of MA (1 mg/kg, s.c.) on behavior was further examined in adult male offspring. Our results showed no differences in the maternal behavior as a matter of bulbectomy, only OBX rats slept more than all the SH controls. Pups from OBX mothers were born with lower birthweight and gained less weight during the postnatal development than pups from SH controls. Both, bulbectomy and MA administration, delayed the eyes opening. As a matter of functional development of the pups, maternal OBX procedure impaired the performance in the Bar-holding test, but only in saline group. OBX/SA group was the worst in the Bar-holding test relative to all the other groups. In addition, pups from OBX mothers dropped more boluses during the Bar-holding test, suggesting that they were more stressed. In adult male offspring, bulbectomy increased immobility only in the SA/SA group. Prenatal MA exposure increased locomotion, while decreasing immobility. In addition, challenge dose of MA in adulthood increased distance traveled, locomotion, rearing, and average and maximal velocity, while decreasing immobility and grooming. In conclusion, our results suggest that depressive-like phenotype of rat mothers induces impairment in somatic and functional development of their male offspring.

Adolescent but not adult ethanol binge drinking modulates cocaine withdrawal symptoms in mice

Background

Ethanol (EtOH) binge drinking is an increasingly common behavior among teenagers that induces long-lasting neurobehavioral alterations in adulthood. An early history of EtOH abuse during adolescence is highly correlated with cocaine addiction in adulthood. Abstinence of cocaine abuse can cause psychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety, psychosis, depression, and cognitive impairments. This study assessed the consequences of adolescent exposure to EtOH on the behavioral alterations promoted by cocaine withdrawal in adulthood.

Methods

We pretreated juvenile (34–47 days old) or adult (68–81 days old) mice with EtOH (1.25 g/kg) following a binge-drinking pattern. Then, after a three-week period without drug delivery, they were subjected to a chronic cocaine treatment in adulthood and tested under cocaine withdrawal by the ensuing paradigms: open field, elevated plus maze, prepulse inhibition, tail suspension test, and object recognition. Another set of mice were treated with the same EtOH binge-drinking procedure during adolescence and were tested immediately afterwards under the same behavioral paradigms.

Results

Adolescent EtOH pretreatment undermined the anxiogenic effects observed after cocaine abstinence, reduced prepulse inhibition, and increased immobility scores in the tail suspension test following cocaine withdrawal. Moreover, the memory deficits evoked by these substances when given separately were enhanced in cocaine-withdrawn mice exposed to EtOH during adolescence. EtOH binge drinking during adolescence also induced anxiety, depressive symptoms, and memory impairments when measured immediately afterwards. In contrast, neither EtOH nor cocaine alone or in combination altered any of these behaviors when given in adulthood.

Conclusions

EtOH binge drinking induces short- and long-term behavioral alterations and modulates cocaine withdrawal symptoms when given in adolescent mice.

Hippocampal cell fate regulation by chronic cocaine during periods of adolescent vulnerability: Consequences of cocaine exposure during adolescence on behavioral despair in adulthood

Given that adolescence represents a critical moment for shaping adult behavior and may predispose to disease vulnerability later in life, the aim of this study was to find a vulnerable period during adolescence in which hippocampal cell fate regulation was altered by cocaine exposure, and to evaluate the long-term consequences of a cocaine experience during adolescence in affecting hippocampal plasticity and behavioral despair in adulthood. Study I: Male rats were treated with cocaine (15mg/kg, i.p.) or saline for 7 consecutive days during adolescence (early post-natal day (PND) 33-39, mid PND 40-46, late PND 47-53). Hippocampal plasticity (i.e., cell fate regulation, cell genesis) was evaluated 24h after the last treatment dose during the course of adolescence (PND 40, PND 47, PND 54). Study II: The consequences of cocaine exposure during adolescence (PND 33-39 or PND 33-46; 7 or 14days) were measured in adulthood at the behavioral (i.e., forced swim test, PND 62-63) and molecular (hippocampal cell markers, PND 64) levels. Chronic cocaine during early adolescence dysregulated FADD forms only in the hippocampus (HC), as compared to other brain regions, and during mid adolescence, impaired cell proliferation (Ki-67) and increased PARP-1 cleavage (a cell death maker) in the HC. Interestingly, chronic cocaine exposure during adolescence did not alter the time adult rats spent immobile in the forced swim test. These results suggest that this paradigm of chronic cocaine administration during adolescence did not contribute to the later manifestation of behavioral despair (i.e., one pro-depressive symptom) as measured by the forced swim test in adulthood.

Cocaine counteracts LPS-induced hypolocomotion and triggers locomotor sensitization expression

Neuroimmune signalling underlies addiction and comorbid depression. Clinical observations indicate that infections and chronic lesions are more frequent in drug users and elevated inflammatory states are evident in cocaine dependents. Therefore, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and inflammatory cytokines represent an important tool for the investigation of sickness, depressive illness and addiction behaviour. A major component of addiction is the progressive and persistent increase in locomotor activity after repeated drug administration and even prolonged periods of abstinence. The aim of this study was to investigate the response of locomotor sensitization when a non-sensitizing dose of cocaine is paired with a systemic inflammatory stimulus. LPS and cocaine were administered intraperitonealy in young-adult male C57bl/6 mice during a 5-day acquisition phase. After a 48-h withdrawal period all groups were challenged with cocaine to evaluate locomotor expression. During the acquisition phase, the LPS-treated groups displayed characteristic hypolocomotion related to sickness behaviour. The low dose of cocaine did not increase the distance travelled, characterizing a non-sensitization dose. Groups that received both LPS and cocaine did not display hypolocomotion, indicating that cocaine might counteract hypolocomotion sickness behaviour. Moreover, during challenge, only these animals expressed locomotor sensitization. Our results indicate that LPS could facilitate the expression of locomotor sensitization in mice and that the immune system may modulate cocaine-induced sensitization.

New trends in the neurobiology and pharmacology of affective disorders

Although depression is a common disorder that is often resistant to pharmacotherapy, its pathophysiology has remained elusive. Since the early 1950s, when the first antidepressants were introduced, i.e., the non-selective MAO inhibitors and tricyclic drugs, a number of hypotheses describing ethiopathogenesis of depression and antidepressant drug action have been formulated. The Institute of Pharmacology, the Polish Academy of Sciences has performed experimental and clinical research focused on the pathophysiology of depression and the mechanisms of action of antidepressant drugs for over 40 years. Our results from this period have significantly contributed to understanding the complex mechanisms of antidepressant drug actions and new pathways that underpin the pathophysiology of depression. Most of these theories are based on the finding that the chronic administration of antidepressants leads to adaptive changes in pre- and post-synaptic monoaminergic and glutamatergic neurotransmission as well as to alterations in gene transcription and immune-inflammatory and neurotrophic factors, resulting in neuroplastic changes in the brain. Taking into account the functional interdependence of the neuronal, hormonal and immunologic systems, we propose neurodevelopmental and neuroimmune theories for affective disorders. Moreover, commonalities have been documented for the pathomechanisms of depression and neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders as well as drug dependence. The aim of this special issue is to briefly present the major research contributions and the new research directions of the Institute of Pharmacology, the Polish Academy of Sciences with respect to the neurobiology of affective disorders and the mechanisms of action of marketed and new putative antidepressant drugs.