Effects of palmitoylethanolamide in cocaine-induced behaviours

GALEANO, PABLO; CASTILLA ORTEGA, ESTELA; SANTÍN NUÑEZ, LUIS JAVIER; ROSELL DEL VALLE, CRISTINA ; RODRÍGUEZ DE FONSECA, FERNANDO; ZAMBRANA INFANTES, EMMA NOELIA; LADRÓN DE GUEVARA MIRANDA, DAVID; BLANCO CALVO, EDUARDO

Copenhague

Congreso; 10th FENS Forum of Neuroscience; 2016

Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS)

Aims. Cocaine addiction is achronically relapsing disorder characterized by the compulsion to seek and takethe drug. Previous investigations have demonstrated that several drugs ofabuse, as cocaine, can alter the levels of lipid-based signalling moleculessuch as the N-acylethanolamines (NAEs). In addition, NAEs levels in the brainare sensitive to cocaine self-administration and extinction training. In thiscontext, this study aimed to investigate the effect of repeated and acutepalmitoylethanolamide (PEA), an endogenous NAE, on the behavioural effects ofcocaine using mouse models of conditioned reward and psychomotor activation. Methods.Using male C57BL/6J mice, the ability of repeated PEA injections (1 or 10 mg/kgi.p) to modulate the development of a conditioned place preference (CPP) andbehavioural sensitization (BS) induced by cocaine (20 mg/kg i.p.) wasevaluated. In addition, the expression of cocaine-induced CPP and BS afteracute PEA administration was also studied. Results. PEA (1 and 10 mg/kg i.p)significantly reduced the development of cocaine-induced BS, but did not modifythe acquisition of cocaine-induced CPP. Furthermore, both doses of PEA wereable to reduce the expression of BS and CPP. Conclusions. Altogether, thesefindings show that exogenous administration of PEA attenuated psychomotoractivation and impaired the expression of CPP induced by cocaine. Our resultsmay be relevant in order to understand the role of NAEs in the development andtreatment of cocaine addiction.