Dopamine D3 receptors (DRD3) are implicated in relapse to drugs. The current study investigated the role of DRD3 in cue-induced reinstatement of nicotine-seeking in rats. Rats were trained to lever-press for intravenous infusions of nicotine, associated with the illumination of a cue-light, under a fixed-ratio schedule of reinforcement. Following extinction of the behaviour, where lever pressing had no consequences, reinstatement testing was performed by reintroduction of the cues after systemic or local administration (into discrete brain areas) of the DRD3 selective antagonist SB277011-A. Systemic antagonism of DRD3 significantly attenuated cue-induced reinstatement of nicotine-seeking. The same effect was observed upon infusions of SB277011-A into the basolateral amygdala or the lateral habenula, but not the nucleus accumbens. The current findings implicate DRD3 in cue-induced reinstatement of nicotine, delineate some of the neural substrates underlying this role and support a potential for using selective DRD3 antagonists for the prevention of relapse to smoking.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/29570 |
| Date | 25 August 2011 |
| Creators | Khaled, Maram Ahmed Taha Mohamed |
| Contributors | Le Foll, Bernard, Le, Anh Dzung |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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