Wednesday, January 15, 2025
1/15/2025
Psychomotor-stimulant Use Disorder (PUD) is a chronic relapsing disorder, characterized by a high propensity for relapse even during protracted abstinence. In both humans with PUD & animal models, the intensity of cue- elicited drug craving & drug-seeking behavior increases or “incubates” during protracted withdrawal. The neurochemical underpinnings of drug craving & its incubation are not well understood. Drug cue-induced increase in metabolic hyperactivity within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is correlated with the intensity of drug- craving in humans. Consistent with this, we have reported a link between the magnitude of drug-seeking in a rat model of cocaine-taking & a number of abnormalities in glutamate (GLU) transmission within the ventromedial aspect of the PFC (vmPFC). Notably, incubated cocaine-seeking is associated with a time-dependent increase in the capacity of drug-predictive cues to increase GLU levels, primarily within the prelimbic (PL) subregion. We theorize this cue-elicited rise in GLU might underpin cue-elicited increases in metabolic hyperactivity observed within PFC of PUD patients. Importantly: (1) the increased GLU responsiveness to drug-predictive cues is selective for rats with a cocaine-taking history; (2) the magnitude of the GLU increase predicts the vigor of cocaine-seeking behavior; & (3) neuropharmacological inhibition of GLU transmission within the PL eliminates cocaine-incubated responding. Intriguingly, the incubated cue-responsiveness of vmPFC GLU is inversely related to cue-elicited changes in vmPFC dopamine (DA). This inverse neurochemical relation has led to the over-arching hypothesis to be tested in this proposal: the incubation of cue-elicited drug-seeking behavior results from dysregulated GLU-DA interactions w ithin the PL subregion of the vmPFC . Aim 1 of this proposal employs neuropharmacological approaches to systematically target & dissect the relative contribution of postsynaptic AMPA & NMDA GLU receptor subtypes to the manifestation of incubated cocaine-seeking & examine for the generalization of pharmacological effects to a highly prevalent psychomotor-stimulant, methamphetamine (MA), as well as the non-drug reinforcer, sucrose. It is hypothesized in Aim 1 that the incubation of COC craving is driven by GLU-mediated activation of ionotropic GLU receptors within vmPFC. Aim 2 will employ a combination of in vivo microdialysis & neuropharmacological approaches to examine the role for D1- & D3-type DA receptors & their regulation of GLU, DA & GABA release within the vmPFC in incubated cocaine-, MA- & sucrose-seeking. It is hypothesized in Aim 2 that the incubation of cue- elicited GLU release, cellular hyperactivity & drug-seeking reflect time-dependent anomalies in DA signaling within PL. The proposal presents a series of theoretically innovative experiments designed to address the biobehavioral underpinnings of incubated craving, which will advance our basic understanding of the neurobiology of relapse.
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