Effects of palmitoylethanolamide in cocaine-induced behaviours

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

Ávila

Congreso; 2nd International Congress of Psychobiology; 2017

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)

Cocaine addiction is a chronically relapsing disorder characterized compulsive drug-seeking behaviour and relapse. Previous investigations have demonstrated the implication of N-acylethanolamides (NAEs) to regulate addictive behaviours induced by several drugs of abuse. Moreover, brain levels of NAEs have shown to be sensitive to cocaine self-administrationand extinction training in rodents. Against this background, this study aimed to investigate the effect of repeated and acute administration of palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), an endogenous NAE, on the behavioural effects of cocaine using mouse models of conditioned reward and psychomotor activation. Methods. The potential ability of repeated PEA administration (1 or 10 mg/kg, i.p) to modulate the development of cocaine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) and behavioural sensitization (BS) was evaluated in male C57BL/6J mice. In addition, the expression of cocaine-induced CPP and BS after acute PEA administration (1 or 10 mg/kg, i.p) was also studied. Results. Results showed that repeated administration of both doses of PEA significantly reduced the development of cocaine-induced BS, but did not modify the acquisition of cocaine-induced CPP. Furthermore, acute administration of both doses of PEA was able to reduce the expression of cocaine-induced BS and CPP. Conclusions. Taken together, our results indicate that exogenous administration of PEA attenuated psychomotor activation and impaired the expression of CPP induced by cocaine. These findings could be relevant to understand the role of NAEs in the development and maintenance of cocaine addiction.