Assessment of individual differences in the rat nucleus accumbens transcriptome following taste-heroin extended access.

ABSTRACT: Heroin addiction is a disease of chronic relapse that harms the individual through devaluation of personal responsibilities in favor of finding and using drugs. Only some recreational heroin users devolve into addiction but the basis of these individual differences is not known. We have shown in rats that avoidance of a heroin-paired taste cue reliably identifies individual animals with greater addiction-like behavior for heroin. Here rats received 5min access to a 0.15% saccharin solution followed by the opportunity to self-administer either saline or heroin for 6h. Large Suppressors of the heroin-paired taste cue displayed increased drug escalation, motivation for drug, and drug loading behavior compared with Small Suppressors. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms of these indi

SUBMITTER: Imperio CG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4893904 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature