Inactivation of the prelimbic cortex impairs the context-induced reinstatement of ethanol seeking

• Autor(a) principal: Palombo, Paola [UNESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Leao, Rodrigo M., Bianchi, Paula C. [UNESP], de Oliveira, Paulo E. C. [UNESP], da Silva Planeta, Cleopatra [UNESP], Cruz, Fábio C.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2017.00725; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/170289
• topic: Context; Ethanol; Pharmacologic inactivation; Prelimbic; Reinstatement

Evidence indicates that drug relapse in humans is often provoked by exposure to the self-administered drug-associated context. An animal model called ABA renewal procedure has been used to study the context-induced relapse to drug seeking. Here, we reported a new and feasible training procedure for the ABA renewal method to explore the role of the prelimbic cortex in context-induced relapse to ethanol seeking. By using a saccharin fading technique, we trained rats to self-administer ethanol (10%). The drug delivery was paired with a discrete tone-light cue. Lever pressing was subsequently extinguished in a non-drug-associated context in the presence of the discrete cue. Rats were subsequently tested for reinstatement in contexts A or B, under extinction conditions. Ethanol-associated context induced the reinstatement of ethanol seeking and increased the expression of Fos in the prelimbic cortex. The rate of neural activation in the prelimbic cortex was 3.4% in the extinction context B and 7.7% in the drug-associated context A, as evidenced by double-labeling of Fos and the neuron-specific protein NeuN. The reversible inactivation of the neural activity in the prelimbic cortex with gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor agonists (muscimol + baclofen) attenuated the context-induced reinstatement of ethanol self-administration. These results demonstrated that the neuronal activation of the prelimbic cortex is involved in the context-induced reinstatement of ethanol seeking.