MOLECULAR AND GENETIC ADAPTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH COMPULSIVE COCAINE INTAKE

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. Cocaine abuse and addiction continues to be a major problem worldwide with grave medical and socioeconomic consequences, and few effective therapies exist to treat this brain disorder. A prevailing theory in the neurobiology of addiction is that repeated cocaine exposure imposes persistent neurochemical and molecular changes, e.g. altered gene expression, in the reward circuitry. The goal of this project is to comprehensively investigate gene expression dysregulation within the mesocorticolimbic reward circuit that may mediate compulsive cocaine taking, using a nonhuman primate model of moderate and excessive cocaine self-administration.