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Young and aged rats were treated chronically with ethanol or scopolamine. Muscarinic receptors were measured in cerebral cortex, hippocampus and striatum. Following scopolamine treatment muscarinic receptor density in cerebral cortex, hippocampus and striatum of young rats increased by 34, 57 and 27%, respectively; in brains of aged rats the increase was 41% in cerebral cortex, 43% in hippocampus and nil in striatum. Affinity of muscarinic receptors was not changed by scopolamine treatment. Following chronic ethanol administration there was a 48% increase in cortical muscarinic receptor density in young, but not aged rats. The density of muscarinic receptors in hippocampus and striatum of both young and aged rats was not affected by ethanol treatment. Affinity of receptors in hippocampus of aged, ethanol-treated rats was increased compared to age-matched controls. Adaptative responses of the muscarinic receptor/transducer system to neurotransmitter availability are present in both young and aged rats, both the ethanol-induced response is present only in young animals. This suggests differences in the mechanism of action of ethanol and receptor agonists and antagonists in modulating receptor plasticity.

Ethanol affects many functions of the brain and peripheral organs. Here we show that ethanol opens G-protein-activated, inwardly rectifying K + (GIRK) channels, which has important implications for inhibitory regulation of neuronal excitability and heart rate. At pharmacologically relevant concentrations, ethanol activated both brain-type GIRK1/2 and cardiac-type GIRK1/4 channels without interaction with G proteins or second messengers. Moreover, weaver mutant mice, which have a missense mutation in the GIRK2 channel, showed a loss of ethanol-induced analgesia. These results suggest that the GIRK channels in the brain and heart are important target sites for ethanol.

Abstract  A family history of alcoholism has been demonstrated to be an important factor affecting cognitive function. However, no studies have yet been conducted to compare cognitive recovery of family history‐positive (FH+) and family history‐negative (FH–) alcoholics in the subacute withdrawal period. To tackle this problem, a neuropsychological test battery consisting of six computerized tests was administered to 19 FH+ and 20 FH– alcoholics at 2 and 7 weeks after abstinence. At 2 weeks after abstinence, overall performance of both FH+ and FH– groups was significantly poorer than that of healthy controls. At 7 weeks, these performances tended to recover, but in Trail Making A and Figure Position, performances of FH+ alcoholics remained worse than those of controls, while those of FH– alcoholics did not. Thus cognitive recovery during the subacute withdrawal period was worse among FH+ alcoholics than FH– alcoholics, and this finding should be considered when planning alcohol rehabilitation programs.

AbstractThe prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are thought to play opposing roles in drug‐seeking behaviour. Specifically, the PL promotes drug‐seeking whereas the IL is necessary for the inhibition of drug‐seeking during extinction. We studied the roles of the PL, IL and dorsal peduncular PFC (DP) in the expression of context‐induced reinstatement, reacquisition and extinction of alcoholic beer‐seeking. In context‐induced reinstatement (renewal), animals were trained to nosepoke for alcoholic beer (context A), extinguished (context B) and then tested in context A and B. In reacquisition, animals received the same instrumental training and extinction without any contextual manipulation. On test, alcoholic beer was again available and responding was compared with naive controls. Just prior to the test, rats received bilateral infusion of baclofen/muscimol into the PL, IL or DP. Reversible inactivation of the PL attenuated ABA renewal but augmented reacquisition. Reversible inactivation of IL had no effect on the reinstatement or reacquisition of alcoholic beer‐seeking and had no effect on extinction expression (ABB and AAA). IL inactivation did, however, increase the latencies with which animals responded on test but only when animals were tested in the extinction context. DP inactivation had no effect on reinstatement or reacquisition. These studies are inconsistent with the view that PL and IL exert opposing effects on drug‐seeking. Rather, they support the view that PL is important for retrieval of drug‐seeking contingency information and that the use of contextual information is enhanced with IL manipulation.

The uptake of [14C]deoxyglucose by brains of rats that were given alcohol in drinking water for 7 months was investigated. There was a general, approximately 50%, increase in deoxyglucose uptake in brains of ethanol-treated rats with areas of the limbic system being particularly affected.

SummaryMechanism of central actions of antidepressants were studied in experimental animals.Tests were made on general behavior, anticonvulsant activity in maximal electroshock seizure, antireserpinic action, antagonistic action to methamphetamine‐excitation, anesthesia induced by hexobarbital, hypertension due to noradrenalin, hypotension induced by acetylcholine, anti‐tremorine action and antagonism for physostigmine in unanesthetized mice and rabbits. In these tests, it seemed that the mechanism of antidepressants is related to the changes of biogenic amines in the brain and to the central autonomic functions. Namely, imipramine, amitriptyline and nialamide were related intimately to the changes of biogenic amine and to the inhibitory effects of parasympathetic functions. Diazepam was connected with the tranquilizing effects and the inhibitory effects of parasympathetic functions, and dimethylaminoethanol had no relation to the autonomic functions.

In four experiments we studied the impact of retrieval-extinction training on the extinction and reinstatement of alcoholic beer seeking. Experiment 1 showed that preceding daily extinction sessions with a brief (10 min) extinction session (retrieval-extinction) attenuated the context-induced reinstatement of alcoholic beer seeking, thereby replicating and extending the findings of Xue et al. (2012). Experiment 2 then showed that the retrieval-extinction manipulation could attenuate the reinstatement produced by reversible inactivation of the nucleus accumbens shell prior to test. Experiment 3 showed that a modified extinction protocol that involved a reversed retrieval (i.e., extinction then retrieval) was also able to attenuate context-induced reinstatement. Finally, experiment 4 showed that the extinction-retrieval manipulation facilitated the reacquisition of alcoholic beer seeking as evidenced by increased breakpoints and responses during tests under a progressive ratio schedule. Taken together, these findings show that retrieval-extinction training protocols can alter the propensity to reinstate extinguished drug seeking but that these alterations are not always protective. These findings are inconsistent with accounts of the retrieval-extinction manipulation in terms of memory reconsolidation and deepened extinction. Instead, they are consistent with the notion that this manipulation increases the sensitivity of animals to the contingencies in effect during testing.

(R)-1-(10,11-Dihydro-dibenzo[b,f]azepin-5-yl)-3-methylamino-propan-2-ol ((R)-OHDMI) and (S,S)-1-cyclopentyl-2-(5-fluoro-2-methoxy-phenyl)-1-morpholin-2-yl-ethanol (CFMME) were synthesized and found to be potent inhibitors of norepinephrine reuptake. Each was labelled efficiently in its methyl group with carbon-11 (t(1/2)=20.4 min) as a prospective radioligand for imaging brain norepinephrine transporters (NET) with positron emission tomography (PET). The uptake and distribution of radioactivity in brain following intravenous injection of each radioligand into cynomolgus monkey was examined in vivo with PET. After injection of (R)-[(11)C]OHDMI, the maximal whole brain uptake of radioactivity was very low (1.1% of injected dose; I.D.). For occipital cortex, thalamus, lower brainstem, mesencephalon and cerebellum, radioactivity ratios to striatum at 93 min after radioligand injection were 1.35, 1.35, 1.2, 1.2 and 1.0, respectively. After injection of [(11)C]CFMME, radioactivity readily entered brain (3.5% I.D.). Ratios of radioactivity to cerebellum at 93 min for thalamus, occipital cortex, region of locus coeruleus, mesencephalon and striatum were 1.35, 1.3, 1.3, 1.2 and 1.2, respectively. Radioactive metabolites in plasma were measured by radio-HPLC. (R)-[(11)C]OHDMI represented 75% of plasma radioactivity at 4 min after injection and 6% at 30 min. After injection of [(11)C]CFMME, 84% of the radioactivity in plasma represented parent at 4 min and 20% at 30 min. Since the two new hydroxylated radioligands provide only modest regional differentiation in brain uptake and form potentially troublesome lipophilic radioactive metabolites, they are concluded to be inferior to existing radioligands, such as (S,S)-[(11)C]MeNER, (S,S)-[(18)F]FMeNER-D(2) and (S,S)-[(18)F]FRB-D(4), for the study of brain NETs with PET in vivo.