Exogenous GM1 ganglioside increases the rewarding properties

VALDOMERO A.; VELAZQUEZ E.E.; ORSINGHER O.A.; CUADRA G.R.

Huerta Grande, Cordoba

Congreso; XXVII Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigacion en Neurociencias; 2012

Sociedad Argentina de Investigacion en Neurociencias (SAN)

We recently reported that GM1 pretreatment enhances the rewarding properties of cocaine, evidenced by a reduction of the dose of cocaine necessary to induce conditioned place preference (CPP), as well as by the number of sessions necessary for conditioning. To clarify the mechanism of such an effect,different pharmacokinetic parameters of cocaine, and its inhibitory effect on the dopamine transporter were evaluated. None of these parameters was modified by GM1 pretreatment, but it modified the brain cocaine disposition. In order to explain the effect of GM1 on the rewarding properties of cocaine, in the present study we examined whether exogenous administration of GM1 induces the expression of BDNF in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Thus, adult male rats were submitted to 3 conditioning sessions with cocaine (10 mg/kg), and following the CPP test were sacrificed, the NAc was dissected and prepared for BDNF determination. Only GM1 pretreated rats (30 mg/kg) showed an increase of the rewarding properties of cocaine, an effect correlated with a significant increase of BDNF levels in the NAc. These preliminary results, suggest that GM1 may promote the increase effects of BDNF, by activating mechanisms of associative learning that underlie the conditioned responses to cocaine.