BIOMARKERS OF BRAIN PATHOLOGY

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. This project is designed to develop rotocols using mass spectroscopy to look at changes in brain chemistry resulting from cocaine abuse using a monkey model and experimentally induced menopause using a mouse model. During the current year, focus has been on developing assay protocols to measure changes in neurotransmitters and their metabolites in the brains of monkeys self-administering cocaine. Samples are collected using microdialysis. These data will be compared to those obtained from the same monkeys obtained from magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) a form of MRI neuroimaging that can generate spectra of neurochemical changes in specific brain regions in vivo. This approach will validate the use of MRS in future studies of neurochemical changes resulting from drug intake.