Psychostimulant-like effects of CART neuropeptides

可卡因和苯丙胺调节转录物（CART）肽是一种内源性肽， 具有类似精神兴奋剂的特性，可能与可卡因和其他药物的作用有关。 精神兴奋剂了解CART肽的作用很重要，因为它将使我们了解 成瘾过程，并将有助于开发可卡因药物治疗的目标 和安非他明成瘾本研究的目的是更全面地描述行为和 CART肽的神经化学精神兴奋剂样作用及其与可卡因的相互作用。这 包括确定1）是否对重复的CART注射发生行为致敏或耐受， 对可卡因交叉致敏; 2）如果CART注射到腹侧被盖区和核团， 多巴胺能增加多巴胺能神经核中的细胞外多巴胺浓度， 精神兴奋剂;和3）如果CART可以修改可卡因自我管理。研究人员假设 CART将以类似于可卡因的方式对这些措施起作用。通过研究行为和 CART的神经化学作用及其与可卡因的相互作用，该项目将产生更大的 了解可卡因的急性强化机制和发生的长期变化 长期滥用可卡因对CART功能的更深入理解可能反过来导致新的 精神兴奋剂滥用的治疗策略。

Cocaine and amphetamine regulated transcript (CART) peptide is an endogenous peptide which appears to have psychostimulant-like properties and may be involved in the actions of cocaine and other psychostimulants. Understanding the effects of CART peptide is important because it will give insight into the addiction process and will contribute to the goal of developing a pharmacological treatment for cocaine and amphetamine addiction. The purpose of this study is to more fully characterize the behavioral and neurochemical psychostimulant-like actions of CART peptide and its interaction with cocaine. This includes determining 1) if behavioral sensitization or tolerance occurs to repeated CART injections and if cross-sensitization occurs to cocaine; 2) if CART injection into the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens increases extracellular dopamine concentrations in the nucleus accumbens like psychostimulants do; and 3) if CART can modify cocaine self-administration. The researchers hypothesis is that CART will act in a similar manner as cocaine on these measures. By studying the behavioral and neurochemical effects of CART and it's interactions with cocaine, this project will yield a greater understanding of both the acute reinforcing mechanisms of cocaine and long-term changes that occur during chronic cocaine abuse. A greater understanding of the functions of CART may in turn lead to novel treatment strategies for psychostimulant abuse.