ePoster

Impact of a highly potent and long-acting cocaine hydrolase on recovery of dopaminergic system after cocaine exposure

Fang Zhengand 1 co-author

Presenting Author

Conference
FENS Forum 2024 (2024)
Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Conference

FENS Forum 2024

Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Resources

Authors & Affiliations

Fang Zheng, Chang-Guo Zhan

Abstract

Dysregulation of dopamine transporters (DAT) within the dopaminergic system is an important biomarker of cocaine exposure. Depending on cocaine amount in-taken, one-time exposure in rats could lead to most (>95% of total) of DAT translocating to plasma membrane of the dopaminergic neurons compared to normal DAT distribution (~5.7% on the plasma membrane). Without further cocaine exposure, the time course of striatal DAT distribution, in terms of intracellular and plasma membrane fractions of DAT, represents a recovery process of the dopaminergic system. In our lab’s studies, we demonstrated that after an acute cocaine exposure of 20 mg/kg (i.p.), the initial recovery process from days 1 to 15 in rats was relatively faster (from >95% on day 1 to ~35.4% on day 15). However, complete recovery of the striatal DAT distribution may take about 60 days. In another situation, with repeated cocaine exposures for once every other day for a total of 17 doses of 20 mg/kg cocaine from days 0 to 32, the complete recovery of striatal DAT distribution may take an even longer time (~90 days), which represents a consequence of chronic cocaine use. Further, we demonstrated that one of our highly efficient Fc-fused cocaine hydrolases, CocH5-Fc(M6), effectively blocked cocaine-induced DAT trafficking and associated behavioral effects with repeated cocaine exposures by maintaining a plasma CocH5-Fc(M6) concentration ≥58.7±2.9 nM in rats. CocH5-Fc(M6) protected dopaminergic system and helped the cocaine-altered DAT distribution to recover by preventing the dopaminergic system from further damage by cocaine in both male and female rats.

Unique ID: fens-24/impact-highly-potent-long-acting-cocaine-da1b820a