?SENSITIZATION? OF NITRIC OXIDE SYNTHASE ACTIVITY IS CRITICAL FOR BEHAVIORAL COCAINE SENSITIZATION AND THE ASSOCIATED ENHANCEMENT OF HIPPOCAMPAL SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY.

LAURA A. GABACH, VALERIA CARLINI, SUSANA RUBIALES, OSCAR RAMÍREZ AND MARIELA F. PÉREZ.

Los Cocos-Cordoba

Congreso; Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencia; 2009

Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencia

Nitric oxide (NO) is a neuromodulator which influences synaptic transmision and promotes synaptic plasticity. The hippocampus is a brain structure that participates in learning and memory processes, and it has been implicated in the neuropathological mechanisms that underlie drug addiction. It has been shown that repeated cocaine (COC) administration induces behavioral sensitization in a ≈ 50 % of treated animals. NO could be involved in the adquisition and maintenance of behavioral effects of cocaine because inhibition of the enzyme NO synthase (NOS) attenuates the development of sensitization. We have previously demonstrated that repeated COC administration induced an increase in hippocampal synaptic plasticity, which is more pronounced in COC sensitized (S) rats . Moreover, the rol of NO in the mechanisms involved in COC sensitization related to hippocampal synaptic plasticity have not been described.