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Accelerated development of cocaine-associated dopamine transients and cocaine use vulnerability following traumatic stress
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Accelerated development of cocaine-associated dopamine transients and cocaine use vulnerability following traumatic stress

Zachary D Brodnik, Emily M Black and Rodrigo A España
Neuropsychopharmacology (New York, N.Y.), v 45(3), pp 472-481
Feb 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-019-0526-1
PMID: 31539899
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-019-0526-1View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)Maybe Open Access (Publisher Bronze),  Open

Abstract

Animals Avoidance Learning - drug effects Avoidance Learning - physiology Cocaine - administration & dosage Cocaine - adverse effects Cocaine-Related Disorders - etiology Cocaine-Related Disorders - metabolism Cocaine-Related Disorders - psychology Dopamine - metabolism Dose-Response Relationship, Drug Male Nucleus Accumbens - drug effects Nucleus Accumbens - metabolism Rats Rats, Sprague-Dawley Self Administration Stress Disorders, Traumatic - complications Stress Disorders, Traumatic - metabolism Stress Disorders, Traumatic - psychology
Post-traumatic stress disorder and cocaine use disorder are highly co-morbid psychiatric conditions. The onset of post-traumatic stress disorder generally occurs prior to the development of cocaine use disorder, and thus it appears that the development of post-traumatic stress disorder drives cocaine use vulnerability. We recently characterized a rat model of post-traumatic stress disorder with segregation of rats as susceptible and resilient based on anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze and context avoidance. We paired this model with in vivo fast scan cyclic voltammetry in freely moving rats to test for differences in dopamine signaling in the nucleus accumbens core at baseline, in response to a single dose of cocaine, and in response to cocaine-paired cues. Further, we examined differences in the acquisition of cocaine self-administration across groups. Results indicate that susceptibility to traumatic stress is associated with alterations in phasic dopamine signaling architecture that increase the rate at which dopamine signals entrain to cocaine-associated cues and increase the magnitude of persistent cue-evoked dopamine signals following training. These changes in phasic dopamine signaling correspond with increases in the rate at which susceptible rats develop excessive cocaine-taking behavior. Together, our studies demonstrate that susceptibility to traumatic stress is associated with a cocaine use-vulnerable phenotype and suggests that differences in phasic dopamine signaling architecture may contribute to the process by which this vulnerability occurs.

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12 citations in Web of Science
13 citations in Scopus

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#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Web of Science research areas
Neurosciences
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Psychiatry
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