# Presentation: 003370

## Increased Energy    “It sustains and refreshes both body and brain...... in the same space of time more than double the amount of work could be undergone...”     Sears, Roebuck, and Co. Consumers Guide, 1900
Euphoria     “.....exhilarating and lasting euphoria.... You perceive increase in self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work.”     Sigmund Freud, 1884

**Euphoria**** ****    ****“.....exhilarating and lasting euphoria.... You perceive increase in self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work.”****     ****Sigmund Freud, 1884**

**Replace Natural Reward****    ****"A coke shot...it's like... injectable sex, an orgasm in every cell.”**** **
**Craving**** ****   ****“I found I was taking money meant to buy presents for my children.”**** **
**Paranoia****  ****   ****“He thought he was being forcibly electrocuted and could see electric wires leading to his body.”**

**Transition to Addiction**
**Good                 to              Bad**

## Searching for the Neurobiological Basis of Addiction

- Molecular site of action
- Physiology of neuronal plasticity
- Environmental influence

## Drugs of Abuse Stimulate Mesoaccumbens Dopamine

## Aphysiologic Release of Dopamine

- <date/time>

**Aphysiologic Release of Dopamine**

## Motivation       to         Action    

## Physiological Activation of Dopamine

**Novel stimulus regardless of valence**
**Changes in intensity of a known stimulus regardless of valence**
**Tolerance develops upon repeated exposure of a given stimulus.**
**Promotes neural plasticity to establish adaptive responses**

## Dopamine Establishes Adaptive Behavioral Responses

**Effect of a Novel versus a Familiar Stimulus**

## Searching for the Neurobiological Basis of Transition to Addiction

- Molecular site of action
- Physiology of neuronal plasticity
- Environmental influence

## Neuroplasticity in Dopamine Transmission

**Increased releasability of dopamine**** ****(depends on calcium transduction)**
**Increased post-synaptic dopamine signals**** ****(D1 receptors)**
**Morphological changes to increase synaptic contact**
**Long-term changes in gene expression**

## Cocaine Alters Gene Expression Causing Changes in Glutamate Transmission

**Increased GluR1**** ****(enhances Ca conductance at AMPA receptors)**
**Increased Narp**** ****(enhances AMPA signaling)**
** ****Increased Homer1a**** ****(inhibits mGluR1,5 signaling)**
** ****Decreased Homer1bc and mGluR5**** ****(inhibits mGluR1,5 signaling)**
** ****Increased PPD**** ****(dynorphin inhibits glutamate release)**

## Glutamatergic

- Afferents to the
- Accumbens

## Searching for the Neurobiological Basis of Transition to Addiction

- Molecular site of action
- Physiology of neuronal plasticity
- Environmental influence

## PET/fMRI of Cocaine CravingChildress et al., 1999; Am.J.Psychiat

## Self-administration of Cocaine

## Glutamate receptor antagonism in the accumbens blocks cocaine-induced relapse

## Effect of Acute versus Chronic Cocaine

**Effect of Acute versus Chronic Cocaine**

## How does all of this help?

**Molecular site of action**
- Manipulate dopamine transmission (dopamine agonist/antagonist; transport blockers; calcium conductance)
**Physiology of neural plasticity**
- Biological markers for vulnerability to addiction (gene expression altered by challenge)
- Inoculate against addiction related neuroplasticity (vector mediated inhibition or promotion of gene expression)
**Environmental influence**
- Modulate circuitry adjacent to dopamine synapses (glutamate antagonists or GABA agonists)