Dopaminergic mediation of a behavioral effect of l-cathinone |
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| Authors: | M D Schechter |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, 39100-000 Diamantina, MG, Brazil;2. REQUIMTE, LAQV, Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal;3. Seção de Perícias e Análises Laboratoriais, Instituto de Criminalística, Polícia Civil do Distrito Federal, 70610-970 Brasília, DF, Brazil;4. Instituto de Criminalística, Polícia Civil de Minas Gerais, 30180-060 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil;5. Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, 38400-902 Uberlândia, MG, Brazil;6. Departamento de Farmácia, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, 39100-000 Diamantina, MG, Brazil |
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| Abstract: | Ten male rats were trained to discriminate between the stimulus properties of 0.6 mg/kg l-cathinone and saline in a two-lever food-motivated operant task. Once trained, rats showed a dose-dependent increase in discrimination over a dosage range of 0.15-1.2 mg/kg l-cathinone. Analysis of this dose-response relationship indicated an ED50 of 0.27 mg/kg. Pretreatment with 0.2 mg/kg of the specific dopamine blocking drug haloperidol increased this ED50 to 0.47 mg/kg and significantly decreased discriminative performance when co-administered with either 0.15, 0.3, or 0.6 mg/kg l-cathinone. Since the dose-effect curves for cathinone with and without haloperidol pre-treatment were parallel, it is suggested that l-cathinone, the active constituent in khat, produces its discriminative properties, in part, by mediation of dopaminergic neuronal systems. |
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