title: CART peptide in the nucleus accumbens regulates psychostimulants: Correlations between psychostimulant and CART peptide effects.
abstract: In this study, we reexamined the effect of Cocaine-and-Amphetamine-Regulated-Transcript (CART) peptide on psychostimulant (PS)-induced locomotor activity (LMA) in individual rats. The Methods utilized were as previously published. The PS-induced LMA was defined as the distance traveled after PS administration (intraperitoneal), and the CART peptide effect was defined as the change in the PS-induced activity after bilateral intra-NAc administration of CART peptide. The experiments included both male and female Sprague-Dawley rats, and varying the CART peptide dose and the PS dose. While the average effect of CART peptide was to inhibit PS-induced LMA, the effect of CART peptide on individual PS-treated animals was not always inhibitory and sometimes even produced an increase or no change in PS-induced LMA. Upon further analysis, we observed a linear correlation, reported for the first time, between the magnitude of PS-induced LMA and the CART peptide effect. Because CART peptide inhibits PS-induced LMA when it is large, and increases PS-induced LMA when it is small, the peptide can be considered a homeostatic regulator of dopamine-induced LMA, which supports our earlier homeostatic hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: The Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University, 954 Gatewood Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA; Psychobiology Section, Molecular Neuropsychiatry Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, NIH, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. Electronic address: femijob@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Martin O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Job
authors.affiliation: The Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University, 954 Gatewood Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kuhar
mesh_terms: D000661:Amphetamine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003042:Cocaine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects*; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D000098882:Cocaine- and Amphetamine-Regulated Transcript Protein
chemical_list: D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D000098882:Cocaine- and Amphetamine-Regulated Transcript Protein; D000661:Amphetamine; D003042:Cocaine
keywords: CART peptide; dopamine; homeostasis; locomotor activity; nucleus accumbens; psychostimulant