Abstract
Rationale
Previous studies have demonstrated that repeated social defeat (RSD) stress only induces cognitive deficits when experienced during adulthood. However, RSD increases cocaine-rewarding effects in adult and adolescent mice, inducing different expressions of proBDNF in the ventral tegmental area.
Objective
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of cocaine administration in socially defeated adult or adolescent mice on learning, memory, and anxiety. Additionally, the role of BDNF was also studied.
Methods
Adolescent and young adult mice were exposed to four episodes of social defeat or exploration (control), being treated with a daily injection of four doses of saline or 1 mg/kg of cocaine 3 weeks after the last social defeat. Other groups were treated with the TrkB receptor antagonist ANA-12 during this 21-day period. After this treatment, their cognitive and anxiogenic profiles were evaluated, along with the expression of BDNF, pCREB, and pERK1/2 in the dentate gyrus (DG) and basolateral amygdala (BLA).
Results
Cocaine induced an increased expression of pCREB and BDNF in the DG and BLA only in defeated animals. Although RSD did not affect memory, the administration of cocaine induced memory impairments only in defeated animals. Defeated adult mice needed more time to complete the mazes, and this effect was counteracted by cocaine administration. RSD induced anxiogenic effects only when experienced during adulthood and cocaine induced a general anxiolytic effect. Blockade of Trkb decreased memory retention without affecting spatial learning and modified anxiety on non-stressed mice depending on their age.
Conclusion
Our results demonstrate that the long-lasting effects of social defeat on anxiety and cognition are modulated by cocaine administration. Our results highlight that the BDNF signaling pathway could be a target to counteract the effects of cocaine on socially stressed subjects.
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We wish to thank Guillermo Chuliá for his English language editing.
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Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), Dirección General de Investigación, PSI2014-51847-R and PSI 2017-83023-R; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (SAF/FEDER 2013–49076-P), Spain; Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Red de Trastornos Adictivos (RTA) (RETICS RD06/0001/1006 and RD12/0028/0005) and Unión Europea, Fondos FEDER “A way to build Europe”; and Instituto Murciano de Investigación en Biomedicina (IMIB), Región de Murcia, Spain.
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This manuscript is the second part of a previous paper published in Psychopharmacology in 2017 with DOI: 10.1007/s00213-017-4612-y
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Blanco-Gandia, M.C., Montagud-Romero, S., Navarro-Zaragoza, J. et al. Pharmacological modulation of the behavioral effects of social defeat in memory and learning in male mice. Psychopharmacology 236, 2797–2810 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-019-05256-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-019-05256-6