Embryonic Methamphetamine Exposure Inhibits Methamphetamine Cue Conditioning and Reduces Dopamine Concentrations in Adult N 2 C . elegans

Methamphetamine (MAP) addiction is substantially prevalent in today's society, resulting in thousands of deaths and costing billions of dollars annually. Despite the potential deleterious consequences, few studies have examined the long-term effects of embryonic MAP exposure. Using the invertebrate nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) allows for a controlled analysis of behavioral and neurochemical changes due to early developmental drug exposure. The objective of the current studies was to determine the long-term behavioral and neurochemical effects of embryonic exposure to MAP in C. elegans. In addition, we sought to improve our conditioning and testing procedures by utilizing liquid filtration, as opposed to agar, and smaller, 6-well testing plates to increase throughput. Wild-type N2 C. elegans were embryonically exposed to 50 μM MAP. Using classical conditioning, adult-stage C. elegans were conditioned to MAP (17 and 500 μM) in the presence of either sodium ions (Na+) or chloride (Cl-) ions as conditioned stimuli (CS+/CS-). Following conditioning, a preference test was performed by placing worms in 6-well test plates spotted with the CS+ and CSat opposite ends of each well. A preference index (PI) was determined by counting the number of worms in the CS+ target zone divided by the total number of worms in the CS+ and CStarget zones. A food conditioning experiment was also performed in order to determine if embryonic MAP exposure affected food conditioning behavior. For the neurochemical experiments, adult worms that were embryonically exposed to MAP were analyzed for (dopamine) DA content using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The liquid filtration conditioning procedure employed here in combination with the use 6-well test plates significantly decreased the time required to perform these experiments and ultimately increased throughput. The MAP conditioning data found that pairing an ion with MAP at 17 or 500 μM significantly increased the preference for that ion (CS+) in worms that were not preexposed to MAP. However, worms embryonically exposed to MAP did not exhibit significant drug cue conditioning. The inability of MAP exposed worms to condition to MAP was not associated with deficits in food conditioning, as MAP exposed worms exhibited a significant cue preference associated with food. Furthermore, our results found that embryonic MAP exposure reduced DA levels in adult C. elegans, which could be a key mechanism contributing to the long-term effects of embryonic MAP exposure. It is possible that embryonic MAP exposure may be impairing the Corresponding author: Simon N. Katner, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Neuroscience Research Building, 320 West 15th Street, Indianapolis IN 46202-2266, skatner@iupui.edu, Phone: (317) 275-7815, Fax: (317) 274-1365. HHS Public Access Author manuscript Dev Neurosci. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 May 28. Published in final edited form as: Dev Neurosci. 2016 ; 38(2): 139–149. doi:10.1159/000445761. A uhor M anscript