title: Exogenous GM1 ganglioside increases accumbal BDNF levels in rats.
abstract: Gangliosides are compounds that are abundant throughout the CNS, participating actively in neuroplasticity. We previously described that exogenous GM1 ganglioside pretreatment enhances the rewarding properties of cocaine, evidenced by a lower number of sessions and/or dosage necessary to induce conditioned place preference (CPP). Since GM1 pretreatment did not modify cocaine's pharmacokinetic parameters, we suspected that the increased rewarding effect found might be mediated by BDNF, a neurotrophic factor closely related to cocaine addiction. This study was performed to investigate the possibility that GM1 may induce changes in BDNF levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a core structure in the brain's reward circuitry, of rats submitted to three conditioning sessions with cocaine (10 mg/kg, i.p.). The results demonstrate that GM1 administration, which showed no rewarding effect by itself in the CPP, induced a significant increase of BDNF protein levels in the NAc, which may account for the increased rewarding effect of cocaine shown in the CPP paradigm.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacología, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba-IFEC (CONICET), Ciudad Universitaria, 5000 Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Analía
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Valdomero
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacología, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba-IFEC (CONICET), Ciudad Universitaria, 5000 Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: María C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Perondi
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacología, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba-IFEC (CONICET), Ciudad Universitaria, 5000 Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Otto A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Orsingher
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacología, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba-IFEC (CONICET), Ciudad Universitaria, 5000 Córdoba, Argentina. Electronic address: gcuadra@fcq.unc.edu.ar.
authors.forename: Gabriel R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Cuadra
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000378:metabolism*; D003042:Cocaine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000187:drug effects*; D005677:G(M1) Ganglioside / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012201:Reward
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D005677:G(M1) Ganglioside; D003042:Cocaine
keywords: BDNF; Cocaine; GM1; Nucleus accumbens; Reward