Evaluation of the effect of tamoxifen in cocaine-conditioned place preference in mice

• Grant number: 15/04277-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2015
• End date: December 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Pharmacology - Neuropsychopharmacology
• Principal Investigator: José Carlos Fernandes Galduroz
• Grantee: Bruna Regina de Queiroz
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Cocaine is a psychoactive drug that has high potential for abuse, because - primarily - of its stimulating effect. This effect is a consequence of blocking the reuptake of dopamine in the central nervous system, especially in the limbic system, which begins in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and goes toward the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). This circuit is the most important for the acute effects on rewarding system of all abuse drugs that lead to addiction. Efforts to develop medications for the treatment of cocaine addiction have been unsuccessful. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of tamoxifen citrate, an inhibitor of protein kinase C (PKC), in cocaine addiction, due to the apparent functional relation between this enzyme and compulsive drug use. C57BL/6J male adult mice will be subjected to the acquisition of cocaine-induced conditioned place preference for 10 days. After the conditioning procedure, a treatment will be performed with tamoxifen for 3 days. The animals will be subjected to behavioral tests (conditioned place preference and locomotor activity tests) for evaluation of the effects of conditioning and treatment. Data will be analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA, followed by Newman-Keuls test, when applicable. A p valued 0.05 is considered significant.