Intervention Of Rhynchophylline On Methamphetamine Dependence In Rats

Methamphetamine (MA) is a kind of psychostimulants, which has been known to induce several types of neural and behavioral changes. Long-term methamphetamine abuse results in many damaging effects by enhancing the dopamine-mediated neurotransmission. However, the specific mechanisms involved in the MA dependence are not very clear so far. In this study, the conditioned place preference (CPP) in rats induced by MA was examined and the changes of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in vivo were detected as well. Immunofluorescence combined with image analyses did confirm the NMDA receptors were involved in the system of reward pathways in the brain. And it is revealed that the changes of the NMDA receptors induced by MA exposure were distinct in the different regions of the reward pathway. MA (1 mg/kg, i.p.) increased the expression of phospho-specific NRl subunit at serine 897 (pNRlS897) in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), but decreased pNRlS897 expression both in the caudate putamen (CPu) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) reversely. In vitro, the...