Prenatal and early adolescent exposure to cannabinoid receptor agonist WIN 55,212-2 differentially affects ethanol preference at adolescence in CD1 mice

MESSORE, LUIS FERNANDO; GONZALEZ PINI, VICTORIA; BRUSCO, ALICIA; FRONTERA, JIMENA LAURA

CABA

Congreso; II FALAN CONGRESS; 2016

The endocannabinoid system (eCB) has been implicated in modulating the reward circuit and participates in the reinforcing and addictive properties of drugs of abuse, including alcohol. The most abundant eCB receptor in the central nervous system is the presynaptic receptor CB1, which is predominantly expressed in brain areas related to drug addiction as the cortex and limbic areas such as the nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmental area (VTA), substantia nigra and amygdala. Furthermore, many of the behavioral effects caused by the consumption of cannabinoids are similar to those observed with ethanol, suggesting that these compounds could share a common target to induce tolerance and a common mechanism for their actions.Due to evidence that exposure to cannabinoid agonists during prenatal development affects the layout for several neurotransmission pathways including the ones related to the reward system, and that the adolescent brain is vulnerable to ethanol exposure, we combined those and aimed to analyze ethanol preference (EP) and anxiety-related behavior in mice prenatally or early adolescent exposed to cannabinoid agonist WIN55212,2 (WIN).