title: Methamphetamine produces bidirectional, concentration-dependent effects on dopamine neuron excitability and dopamine-mediated synaptic currents.
abstract: Amphetamine-like compounds are commonly used to enhance cognition and to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, but they also function as positive reinforcers and are self-administered at doses far exceeding clinical relevance. Many of these compounds (including methamphetamine) are substrates for dopamine reuptake transporters, elevating extracellular dopamine by inhibiting uptake and promoting reverse transport. This produces an increase in extracellular dopamine that inhibits dopamine neuron firing through autoreceptor activation and consequently blunts phasic dopamine neurotransmission, an important learning signal. However, these mechanisms do not explain the beneficial behavioral effects observed at clinically useful concentrations. In the present study, we have used patch-clamp electrophysiology in slices of mouse midbrain to show that, surprisingly, low concentrations of methamphetamine actually enhance dopamine neurotransmission and increase dopamine neuron firing through a dopamine transporter-mediated excitatory conductance. Both of these effects are reversed by higher concentrations of methamphetamine, which inhibit firing through dopamine D2 autoreceptor activation and decrease the peak amplitude of dopamine-mediated synaptic currents. These competing, concentration-dependent effects of methamphetamine suggest a mechanistic interplay by which lower concentrations of methamphetamine can overcome autoreceptor-mediated inhibition at the soma to increase phasic dopamine transmission.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas 78229, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Branch
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Beckstead
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017660:Autoreceptors / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D015259:Dopamine Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D059290:Dopaminergic Neurons / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008636:Mesencephalon / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D008694:Methamphetamine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2 / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D017660:Autoreceptors; D015259:Dopamine Agents; D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2; D008694:Methamphetamine