The presence of co specifics during nicotine exposure alters drug preference in a dose dependent manner in zebrafish (Danio Rerio).

ROCCO, L Y BERNABEU, R

Workshop; Workshop del Instituto de Fisiologia y Biofisica, Facultad de Medicina, UBA; 2020

Universidad de Buenos Aires

Group dynamicsin gregarious animals are a complex behavioural aspect with multiple variablesinfluencing the way individuals relate to one another. Drugs of abuse such asnicotine are important reinforcing stimuli which have been proven to alter theway group behaviour takes place. Interestingly, there have not been studiesthat show whether group dynamics alter the way in which individuals react to adrug. These dynamics may be highly influential on the possibility of anindividual becoming addicted to a certain substance.Nicotinerewarding properties have been assessed in zebrafish using a biased conditionedplace preference (CPP) protocol, which has proven to be a remarkable tool inevaluating response to drugs of abuse with this animal model.Despite thefact that several studies have been able to describe the way in which groupbehaviour is altered with the addition of several substances, and how cospecifics have altered the response to drugs of abuse by making the animalchoose between an addictive substance, food, or the possibility to be a part ofa group of its own species, there have not been studies that consider how drugexposure within a group can alter the way an individual responds to a drug longterm.In the presentstudy, we aimed to evaluate whether individuals exposed to nicotine as a groupdeveloped different responses to those of individuals exposed to the substancein isolation (?classic? CPP) and whether these responses varied in accordanceto the concentration of nicotine to which they were exposed.By exposingfish to either a ?Group? or an ?Alone? CPP Protocol our preliminary resultsseem to show that Nicotine elicits a stronger, more robust CPP when beingexposed to the drug as a group. When Nicotine concentration is risen to 50mg/L,however, the animals exposed as a group show negative CPP scores in comparisonto their ?Alone? exposure counterparts, that exhibit higher CPP Scores whencompared to the ones exposed to a concentration of 15mg/L of Nicotine. Theseresults may indicate that being exposed as a group enhanced the effects ofnicotine to a point that higher concentrations resulted in an exacerbation ofits negative, anxiogenic effects, outweighing its rewarding, anxiolytic properties.To corroborate our findings we conductedprotocols of nicotine exposure coupled with Phenylbutirate, an HDAC inhibitorthat has been proven to arrest the development of CPP in isolated animals. Wetheorized that by blocking the unfolding of CPP in a group-enhanced CPPprotocol we should be able to observe a positive CPP score at higherconcentrations (50mg/L) whereas the isolated CPP protocol should still beshowing negative results regardless of concentration.