title: Behavioural and neurochemical assessment of salvinorin A abuse potential in the rat.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Salvinorin A is a recreational drug derived from Salvia divinorum, a sage species long used as an entheogen. While salvinorin A has potent hallucinogenic properties, its abuse potential has not been assessed consistently in controlled behavioural and neurochemical studies in rodents.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to assess salvinorin A abuse potential by measuring its capacity to establish and maintain self-administration behaviour and to modify dopamine (DA) levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) of rats.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Male Lister Hooded (LH) and Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were allowed to self-administer salvinorin A (0.5 or 1.0 μg/kg/infusion) intravenously 2 h/day for 20 days under a continuous schedule of reinforcement and lever pressing as operandum. LH rats discriminated between the active and inactive levers but did not reach the acquisition criterion for stable self-administration (≥12 active responses vs ≤5 inactive responses for at least 5 consecutive days). SD rats discriminated between the two levers at the lower dose only but, like LH rats, never acquired stable self-administration behaviour. Systemic salvinorin A increased extracellular DA in the NAcc shell of both LH (at ≥40 μg/kg) and SD rats (at ≥5 μg/kg), but injection into the ventral tegmental area (VTA) induced no significant change in NAcc DA concentration in LH rats and only brief elevations in SD rats.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Salvinorin A differs from other commonly abused compounds since although it affects accumbal dopamine transmission, yet it is unable, at least at the tested doses, to sustain stable intravenous self-administration behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Division of Neuroscience and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria di Monserrato, 09042, Monserrato, CA, Italy.
authors.forename: Veronica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Serra
authors.forename: Liana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fattore
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scherma
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Collu
authors.forename: Maria Sabrina
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Spano
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fratta
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fadda
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001923:Brain Chemistry / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D045785:Diterpenes, Clerodane / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D027544:Salvia; D012646:Self Administration; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000523:psychology; D017557:Ventral Tegmental Area / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D045785:Diterpenes, Clerodane; C090499:salvinorin A; D004298:Dopamine