Exogenous GM1 ganglioside increases accumbal BDNF levels in rats.

VALDOMERO A.; PERONDI M.C.; ORSINGHER O.A.; CUADRA G.R.

BEHAVIOURAL BRAIN RESEARCH

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015 vol. 278 p. 303 - 306

0166-4328

Gangliosides are compounds that are abundant throughout the CNS, participating actively in neuroplasticity. We previously described that exogenous GM1 ganglioside pretreatment enhances the rewarding properties of cocaine, evidenced by a lower number of sessions and/or dosage necessary to induce conditioned place preference (CPP). Since GM1 pretreatment did not modify cocaine´s pharmacokinetic parameters, we suspected that the increased rewarding effect found might be mediated by BDNF, a neurotrophic factor closely related to cocaine addiction. This study was performed to investigate the possibility that GM1 may induce changes in BDNF levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a core structure in the brain´s reward circuitry, of rats submitted to three conditioning sessions with cocaine (10 mg/kg, i.p.). The results demonstrate that GM1 administration, which showed no rewarding effect by itself in the CPP, induced a significant increase of BDNF protein levels in the NAc, which may account for the increased rewarding effect of cocaine shown in the CPP paradigm.