Effects of serotonin 2C receptor agonists on the behavioral and neurochemical effects of cocaine in squirrel monkeys

Accumulating evidence indicates that the serotonin system mod-ulates the behavioral and neurochemical effects of cocaine, but the receptor subtypes mediating these effects remain unknown. Recent studies have demonstrated that pharmacological activa-tion of the serotonin 2C receptor (5-HT2CR) attenuates the behav-ioral and neurochemical effects of cocaine in rodents, but such compounds have not been systematically evaluated in nonhuman primates. The present experiments sought to determine the impact of pretreatment with the preferential 5-HT2CR agonist m-chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP) and the selective 5-HT2CR ago-nist Ro 60-0175 [(-S)-6-chloro-5-fluoro--methyl-1H-indole-1-ethanamine fumarate] on the behavioral and neurochemical effects of cocaine in squirrel monkeys. In subjects trained to lever-press according to a 300-s fixed-interval schedule of stim