Topic: substance use disorder

Aims: Evaluate the effects of ayahuasca (AYA) on cocaine (COC)-induced conditioned place preference (CPP). Methods: (A) AYA was lyophilized, and its components were quantified by LC-MS/MS. (B) Six-week-old C57Bl/6 mice were habituated to the CPP apparatus for 15 minutes. The following day, they underwent a pre-test to assess their natural compartmental preference (15 minutes). During the conditioning phase (CT; 3rd-10th day), mice remained confined in one of the CPP compartments for 30 minutes. On the 11th day, they were tested to evaluate: (B.i) Effects of AYA on CPP: on odd CT days, they wer

Impaired decision-making skills in patients with cocaine addiction are thought to drive both initiation and continuation of cocaine use despite its negative consequences. Literature suggests that females advance more quickly into substance use disorder, indicating sex-differences in vulnerability to drug addiction. The gambling task literature in patients addicted to cocaine and in rodents is inconsistent, and sex differences, if sex was not considered as a biological variable may have contributed to this. We hypothesize that chronic cocaine-exposure might affect decision-making in male and fe

The high prevalence of comorbidities between substance use disorder (SUD) and other psychiatric diseases, including depression, suggests that brain dysfunctions underlying these disorders may share partly overlapping pathophysiological mechanisms. Identification of such common dysfunctions is therefore a key asset to design therapeutic strategies to treat both SUD and comorbid psychiatric conditions, rather than treating each disease separately, which holds poor efficacy. From mice to humans, we showed that an increase in dopamine (DAR) and glutamate NMDA (NMDAR) receptor heteromerization (i.e

While emerging evidence suggests a role for gut bacteria in the pathophysiology of substance use disorder (SUD), studies of their impact on brain and behavioral responses to drugs have been very limited so far. We previously showed that gut dysbiosis enhances the nicotine-induced activation of the mesolimbic system and alters nicotine’s motivational properties in mice. However, the mechanisms linking gut bacteria to the mesolimbic system to influence its response to nicotine remain to be identified. Microbial products are suspected to play a role in this process by influencing gene expression,