Effects of MK-801 on Cocaine Place Conditioning in Adolescent Female Rats

One of the most studied neurotransmitter systems in addiction is the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, which primarily uses dopamine to build a reward and learning mechanism. Glutamate and NMDA receptors are also used in the pathway. MK-801 is a NMDA receptor antagonist and is thought to disrupt the mesolimbic pathway, thus slowing or stopping addiction. The present experiment assessed the effects of MK-801 on cocaine conditioned place preference in adolescent female rats. Rats were injected with either saline or MK-801, and 30 minutes later were placed them in the conditioning chamber for 20 minutes. Changes in chamber preference were assessed to detect changes in behavior. The present preliminary data indicates that rats which received saline/saline or MK-801/saline injections treated the chambers neutrally after conditioning, demonstrating that MK-801 alone did not affect chamber preference differently from saline/saline treated rats. At the time of submission no data for the MK-801/cocaine or saline/cocaine injections have been collected, however it is expected a change in chamber preference to be observed in rats administered only cocaine, while seeing little to no change in chamber preference in rats treated with Mk-801 and cocaine. This would demonstrate that MK-801 plays a role in blocking cocaine sensitization in rats