Functional connectivity, behavioral and dopaminergic alterations 24 hours following acute exposure to synthetic bath salt drug methylenedioxypyrovalerone.

ABSTRACT: Among cathinone drugs known as bath salts, methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) exerts its potent actions via the dopamine (DA) system, and at intoxicating doses may produce adverse behavioral effects. Previous work by our group suggests that prolonged alterations in correlated neural activity between cortical and striatal areas could underlie, at least in part, the adverse reactions to this bath salt drug. In the present study, we assessed the effect of acute MDPV administration on brain functional connectivity at 1 and 24 h in rats. Using graph theory metrics to assess in vivo brain functional network organization we observed that 24 h after MDPV administration there was an increased clustering coefficient, rich club index, and average path length. Increases in these metrics suggests that M

SUBMITTER: Colon-Perez LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6397742 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature