PRELIMINARY STUDIES INVESTIGATING THE CENTRAL ACTIONS OF THC IN MICE

CAMILA SAENZ, GUADALUPE GARCÍA ROMERO, FRANCO BARRILE, JULIETA AGUGGIA, GIMENA FERNANDEZ, NICOLAS DE FRANCESCO; MARIA FLORENCIA ANDREOLI ; MARIO PERELLO

Congreso; XXXVI SAN 2021 Annual Meeting; 2021

Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive component of the Cannabis plant. The molecular mechanisms by which THC acts in the brain and their cross-talk with other endogenous neuroendocrine systems are just beginning to be investigated. Here, we evaluated the neuroanatomical and behavioral effects of the central treatment with THC in mice. First, we administered intracerebroventricularly (ICV) 5 mg of THC to wild-type male mice and assessed the induction of the marker of neuronal activation c-Fos 2-h after treatment as compared to vehicle-treated mice (n=4 and 3, respectively). We found that THC induced an increase of the number of C-Fos positive cells the supramammillary nucleus (SuM), whereas it did not change the number of C-Fos positive cells in other brain areas, such as ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens (Acb) and LHA. In parallel, we assessed acute and overnight food intake as well as on locomotoractivity and conditioned place preference, and failed to find THC-induced effects. Thus, our peliminary dataindicates that ICV administration of 5 mg of THC induces SuM activation without behavioral effects unmaskedwith the tested approaches. We have set up experimental conditions in mice to uncover central effects of THC,we hope to improve such experimental conditions to now investigate novel aspects of the THC action in thebrain