Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Agustín Salguero | Email: asalguero@immf.uncor.edu
Agustín Salguero 1°, Leonardo Marengo 1°, Ignacio Morón Henche 3°, Cruz Miguel Cendán 2°, Leandro Ruiz-Leyva 2°, Ricardo Pautassi 1°
1° Instituto de Investigación Médica M. y M. Ferreyra (INIMEC CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Córdoba), Córdoba, 5000, Argentina
2° Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Neuroscience, Biomedical Research Center (CIBM) Faculty of Medicine, University of Granada, Spain
3° Department of Psychobiology and Centre of Investigation of Mind, Brain, and Behavior (CIMCYC), Faculty of Psychology, University of Granada, Spain
4° Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina
The antagonism of the Sigma-1 receptor (S1-R) seems to modulate the motivational effects of ethanol and ethanol intake. It is still unknown if this antagonism would protect from the promoting effect that a history of adolescent ethanol exposure exerts on ethanol intake at adulthood. We examined, in adults rats exposed (BINGE group) or not (CTRL group) to binge-like ethanol intake throughout adolescence (8-10% , PDs 30-47; nine 2-hrs sessions), ethanol intake in limited access ethanol sessions (PDs 111-119; five 2 hours sessions) after the administration of the sigma antagonist S1RA (0, 4 or 16 mg/kg). We found that BINGE rats drank significantly more alcohol than CTRL animals at adulthood, and that the administration of 16 mg/kg S1RA significantly decreased adult ethanol intake in both groups. Rats given 0 mg/kg S1RA were exposed to an additional 1hour limited access session, and subsequently sacrificed for determination of blood ethanol levels (BELs). BINGE rats drank significantly more ethanol than CTRL in this sessions and achieved a BEL of 40 mg/dL, which significantly correlated with their absolute ethanol intake scores. These results indicate that S1-R antagonists may be promising targets to prevent ethanol intake at adulthood, even after a history of chronic and substantial adolescent ethanol exposure.