Abstract
Methamphetamine is a potent psychostimulant with high abuse rates. Currently, there is no Food and Drug Administration-approved pharmacotherapy for methamphetamine addiction. Ideally, a pharmacotherapy should selectively decrease methamphetamine self-administration without affecting responding for other reinforcers. One way to test this is with the use of a multiple schedule of reinforcement, in which drug and food are available in alternating components within a session. The present study evaluated GZ-793A, a vesicular monoamine transporter-2 inhibitor, and varenicline, a partial agonist at α4β2 and full agonist at α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, for their ability to decrease methamphetamine and food self-administration using a multiple schedule of reinforcement. Male Sprague-Dawley rats self-administered methamphetamine (0.03 mg/kg/intravenous infusion) and food pellets under a multiple schedule of reinforcement. GZ-793A or varenicline was administered before multiple schedule sessions. GZ-793A (5 and 20 mg/kg) significantly decreased methamphetamine intake compared with saline and did not alter food-maintained responding. In contrast, varenicline decreased methamphetamine intake less specifically across time. The results suggest that vesicular monoamine transporter-2 inhibition may be a viable pharmacological target for the treatment of methamphetamine-use disorders.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 87-97 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Behavioural Pharmacology |
Volume | 29 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding was kindly provided by the Creighton University College of Arts and Science, the Ferlic Summer Undergraduate Research Scholarship, and by an NIH grant DA013519.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.
Keywords
- GZ-793A
- Methamphetamine
- Multiple schedule
- Rat
- Self-administration
- Varenicline
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pharmacology
- Psychiatry and Mental health