ArticleBiology of sex differences2023
Cocaine-induced sensitization and glutamate plasticity in the nucleus accumbens core: effects of sex.
Article in Biology of sex differences, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exercise as a Promising Adjunct Treatment for Methamphetamine Addiction: Advances in Understanding Neuroplasticity and Clinical Applications.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Cocaine sensitization and accumbens shell plasticity depend on biological sex and gonadal hormones in C57BL/6J mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Neuron soma size and density measurements in rat striatal regions disaggregated by sex and estrous cycle phase.Brain structure & function · 2025Article
- Critical Involvement of Actin Stabilizer TMOD2 in Cocaine-Induced Neuroadaptations.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Sex-Specific Mechanisms Underlie Long-Term Potentiation at Hippocampus→Medium Spiny Neuron Synapses in the Medial Shell of the Nucleus Accumbens.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Astrocyte CaFrontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2024Article
- Review
- Effects of junk-food on food-motivated behavior and nucleus accumbens glutamate plasticity; insights into the mechanism of calcium-permeable AMPA receptor recruitment.Neuropharmacology · 2024Article
- Sex differences in mouse infralimbic cortex projections to the nucleus accumbens shell.Biology of sex differences · 2023Article
- Metformin Prevents Cocaine Sensitization: Involvement of Adenosine Monophosphate-Activated Protein Kinase Trafficking between Subcellular Compartments in the Corticostriatal Reward Circuit.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe development and persistence of addiction is mediated in part by drug-induced alterations in nucleus accumbens (NAc) function. AMPA-type glutamate receptors (AMPARs) provide the main source of excitatory drive to the NAc and enhancements in transmission of calcium-permeable AMPARs (CP-AMPARs) mediate increased cue-triggered drug-seeking following prolonged withdrawal. Cocaine treatment regimens that result in psychomotor sensitization enhance subsequent drug-seeking and drug-taking behaviors. Furthermore, cocaine-induced locomotor sensitization followed by 14 days of withdrawal results in an increase in glutamatergic synaptic transmission. However, very few studies have examined cocaine-induced alterations in synaptic transmission of females or potential effects of experimenter-administered cocaine on NAc CP-AMPAR-mediated transmission in either sex.
methodsMale and female rats were given repeated systemic cocaine injections to induce psychomotor sensitization (15 mg/kg, i.p. 1 injection/day, 8 days). Controls received repeated saline (1 mL/kg, i.p). After 14-16 days of withdrawal brain slices were prepared and whole-cell patch-clamp approaches in the NAc core were used to measure spontaneous excitatory post-synaptic currents (sEPSC), paired pulse ratio, and CP-AMPAR transmission. Additional female rats from this same cohort were also given a challenge injection of cocaine at withdrawal day 14 to assess the expression of sensitization.
resultsRepeated cocaine produced psychomotor sensitization in both sexes. In males this was accompanied by an increase in sEPSC frequency, but not amplitude, and there was no effect on the paired pulse ratio. Males treated with cocaine and saline had similar sensitivity to Naspm. In contrast, in females there were no significant differences between cocaine and saline groups on any measure, despite females showing robust psychomotor sensitization both during the induction and expression phase.
conclusionsOverall, these data reveal striking sex differences in cocaine-induced NAc glutamate plasticity that accompany the induction of psychomotor sensitization. This suggests that the neural adaptations that contribute to sensitization vary by sex.
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