|
|
||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1 Pharmacology & Toxicology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: psgallag{at}utmb.edu.
The amygdala is part of the brain reward circuitry that plays a role in cocaine-seeking and abstinence in animals and cocaine craving and relapse in humans. Cocaine-seeking is elicited by cocaine-associated cues, and the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and CeA are essential in forming and communicating drug-related associations that are thought to be critical in long lasting relapse risk associated with drug addiction. Here we simulated a cue stimulus with high frequency stimulation (HFS) of the BLA-CeA pathway to examine mechanisms which may contribute to drug-related associations. We found enhanced long-term potentiation (LTP) after 14-day but not 1-day withdrawal from 7-day cocaine treatment mediated through NMDA receptors (NR), L-type voltage gated calcium channels (L-VGCCs), and corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF)1 receptors, accompanied by increased phosphorylated NR1 and CRF1 protein not associated with changes in NMDA/AMPA ratios in amygdalae from cocaine-treated animals. We suggest that these signaling mechanisms may provide therapeutic targets for the treatment of cocaine cravings.
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
T. L. Kash, W. P. Nobis, R. T. Matthews, and D. G. Winder Dopamine Enhances Fast Excitatory Synaptic Transmission in the Extended Amygdala by a CRF-R1-Dependent Process J. Neurosci., December 17, 2008; 28(51): 13856 - 13865. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH |
| Visit Other APS Journals Online |