Cocaine and caffeine alter excitatory synaptic properties and intracelular [Ca+2] in somatosensory thalamic neurons

RIBERO-ECHETO, M CELESTE; GONZALEZ INCHAUSPE C; PERISSINOTTI, PAULA P.; MUÑIZ, J; GINZALEZ, B; BISAGNO, V; URBANO, FRANCISCO J.

Congreso; FALAN 2016; 2016

We studied the effects of an acute binge administration of caffeine, cocaine or both combined on synaptic properties of Ventrobasal neurons (VB). Male C57/BL6 mice were treated with cocaine (10 mg/kg; 3 inj. 1 hr apart, i.p.), caffeine (5mg/kg; 3 inj. 1 hr apart, i.p.), their combination (CC) (10 mg/kg Coc + 5 mg/kg Caf 3 inj. 1 hr apart, i.p.), vehicle (Veh: Saline solution) and A1 adenosine receptor antagonist DPCPX (5mg/kg). We recorded VB neurons 24 hs after last binge injection using whole cell patch-clamp and investigated the effect of these treatments on glutamatergic evoked activity and action potential alteration onto VB neurons. We also evaluated the total VB calcium concentration in VB neurons with fura-2 ratiometric calcium imaging registration before and after bath application of caffeine (20 mM). We observed that paired-pulse evoked glutamatergic currents (EPSC) showed greater facilitation at 40Hz compared to 1Hz frequency stimulation in CC group. Other groups didn?t show significant differences (cocaine, n=6; CC, n= 6; caffeine, n=6 and Veh, n=8; ANOVA, p