Endogenous opioid system modulates conditioned cocaine reward in a sex-dependent manner.

ABSTRACT: Cocaine predictive cues and contexts exert powerful control over behaviour and can incite cocaine seeking and taking. This type of conditioned behaviour is encoded within striatal circuits, and these circuits and behaviours are, in part, regulated by opioid peptides and receptors expressed in striatal medium spiny neurons. We previously showed that augmenting levels of the opioid peptide enkephalin in the striatum facilitates acquisition of cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP), while opioid receptor antagonists attenuate expression of cocaine CPP. However, whether striatal enkephalin is necessary for acquisition of cocaine CPP and maintenance during extinction remains unknown. To address this, we generated mice with a targeted deletion of enkephalin from dopamine D2-receptor expressi

SUBMITTER: Matsumura K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11974355 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature