Systemic administration of cocaine, caffeine or their combination alters the pacemaker activity of somatosensory thalamic neurons in mice.

CELESTE RIVERO-ECHETO; PERISSINOTTI, PAULA P.; GONZÁLEZ-INCHAUSPE, CARLOTA; EDGAR GARCÍA-RILL; BISAGNO, VERÓNICA; URBANO, FRANCISCO J.

Congreso; Society for Neuroscience; 2018

Caffeine is the most widely stimulant drug used. Cocaine is an addictive drug that causes dependence and long-term consequences when abused. In South America there is an endemic use of cocaine paste base or ?PACO?, chemically composed by a caffeine:cocaine ratio of 1:4. We tested the hypothesis that caffeine:cocaine combination might alter intrinsic properties of thalamocortical neurons. We treated male C57/BL6 mice with binge administrations of cocaine (10 mg/kg; 3 inj. 1 hr apart, i.p.), caffeine (5mg/kg; 3 inj. 1 hr apart, i.p.) their combination (Coc+Caff) (10 mg/kg Coc + 5 mg/kg Caf 3 inj. 1 hr apart, i.p.). Control group was administered with saline solution. Patch clamp recordings from thalamocortical slices in vitro were performed 24-hour after either one day (i.e., Acute Binge, AB) 13-day (i.e., Chronic Binge, CB) binge administrations. The peak calcium current density (pA/pF) mediated by T- type calcium channels during whole-cell patch clamp recording of VB neurons increased drastically in Caffeine in the AB (Control n=32, Caff n=10, Coc n=5, coc+Caff n=7; KW analysis H:13, p