Cargando…

Effect of Some Psychoactive Drugs Used as ‘Legal Highs’ on Brain Neurotransmitters

New psychoactive “designer drugs” are synthetic compounds developed to provide similar effects to illicit drugs of abuse, but not subjected to legal control. The rapidly changing legal status of novel psychoactive drugs triggers the development of new compounds, analogs of well-known amphetamine or...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gołembiowska, Krystyna, Jurczak, Alexandra, Kamińska, Katarzyna, Noworyta-Sokołowska, Karolina, Górska, Anna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4786600/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26501352
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12640-015-9569-1
_version_ 1782420573495754752
author Gołembiowska, Krystyna
Jurczak, Alexandra
Kamińska, Katarzyna
Noworyta-Sokołowska, Karolina
Górska, Anna
author_facet Gołembiowska, Krystyna
Jurczak, Alexandra
Kamińska, Katarzyna
Noworyta-Sokołowska, Karolina
Górska, Anna
author_sort Gołembiowska, Krystyna
collection PubMed
description New psychoactive “designer drugs” are synthetic compounds developed to provide similar effects to illicit drugs of abuse, but not subjected to legal control. The rapidly changing legal status of novel psychoactive drugs triggers the development of new compounds, analogs of well-known amphetamine or mescaline. New designer drugs used as substitutes in ecstasy pills are the least investigated and can cause life-threatening effects on users. The aim of our research was to examine the effects of acute administration of 4-methoxyamphetamine (PMA, 5 and 10 mg/kg), 4-methoxy-N-methylamphetamine (PMMA, 5 and 10 mg/kg), and mephedrone (MEPH, 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg) on extracellular and tissue level of dopamine (DA), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and their metabolites in rat brain, by microdialysis method in freely moving animals and HPLC. Similarly to 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 5 and 10 mg/kg) PMA, PMMA and MEPH enhanced the release of DA and 5-HT in rat striatum, nucleus accumbens, and frontal cortex. DA tissue content was increased by MEPH and PMMA in striatum, by MEPH, PMA, and PMMA in nucleus accumbens, and by PMA in frontal cortex. Instead, cortical DA level was decreased by MEPH and PMMA. MEPH did not influence 5-HT tissue level in striatum and nucleus accumbens, but decreased its level in frontal cortex. PMMA increased 5-HT content in striatum, while PMA enhanced it in nucleus accumbens and frontal cortex. Observed changes in brain monoamines and their metabolites by new psychoactive drugs suggest that these drugs may be capable of development of dependence. Further experiments are needed to fully investigate the neurotoxic and abuse potential of those drugs.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4786600
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher Springer US
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-47866002016-04-09 Effect of Some Psychoactive Drugs Used as ‘Legal Highs’ on Brain Neurotransmitters Gołembiowska, Krystyna Jurczak, Alexandra Kamińska, Katarzyna Noworyta-Sokołowska, Karolina Górska, Anna Neurotox Res Original Article New psychoactive “designer drugs” are synthetic compounds developed to provide similar effects to illicit drugs of abuse, but not subjected to legal control. The rapidly changing legal status of novel psychoactive drugs triggers the development of new compounds, analogs of well-known amphetamine or mescaline. New designer drugs used as substitutes in ecstasy pills are the least investigated and can cause life-threatening effects on users. The aim of our research was to examine the effects of acute administration of 4-methoxyamphetamine (PMA, 5 and 10 mg/kg), 4-methoxy-N-methylamphetamine (PMMA, 5 and 10 mg/kg), and mephedrone (MEPH, 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg) on extracellular and tissue level of dopamine (DA), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and their metabolites in rat brain, by microdialysis method in freely moving animals and HPLC. Similarly to 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 5 and 10 mg/kg) PMA, PMMA and MEPH enhanced the release of DA and 5-HT in rat striatum, nucleus accumbens, and frontal cortex. DA tissue content was increased by MEPH and PMMA in striatum, by MEPH, PMA, and PMMA in nucleus accumbens, and by PMA in frontal cortex. Instead, cortical DA level was decreased by MEPH and PMMA. MEPH did not influence 5-HT tissue level in striatum and nucleus accumbens, but decreased its level in frontal cortex. PMMA increased 5-HT content in striatum, while PMA enhanced it in nucleus accumbens and frontal cortex. Observed changes in brain monoamines and their metabolites by new psychoactive drugs suggest that these drugs may be capable of development of dependence. Further experiments are needed to fully investigate the neurotoxic and abuse potential of those drugs. Springer US 2015-10-26 2016 /pmc/articles/PMC4786600/ /pubmed/26501352 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12640-015-9569-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2015 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Original Article
Gołembiowska, Krystyna
Jurczak, Alexandra
Kamińska, Katarzyna
Noworyta-Sokołowska, Karolina
Górska, Anna
Effect of Some Psychoactive Drugs Used as ‘Legal Highs’ on Brain Neurotransmitters
title Effect of Some Psychoactive Drugs Used as ‘Legal Highs’ on Brain Neurotransmitters
title_full Effect of Some Psychoactive Drugs Used as ‘Legal Highs’ on Brain Neurotransmitters
title_fullStr Effect of Some Psychoactive Drugs Used as ‘Legal Highs’ on Brain Neurotransmitters
title_full_unstemmed Effect of Some Psychoactive Drugs Used as ‘Legal Highs’ on Brain Neurotransmitters
title_short Effect of Some Psychoactive Drugs Used as ‘Legal Highs’ on Brain Neurotransmitters
title_sort effect of some psychoactive drugs used as ‘legal highs’ on brain neurotransmitters
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4786600/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26501352
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12640-015-9569-1
work_keys_str_mv AT gołembiowskakrystyna effectofsomepsychoactivedrugsusedaslegalhighsonbrainneurotransmitters
AT jurczakalexandra effectofsomepsychoactivedrugsusedaslegalhighsonbrainneurotransmitters
AT kaminskakatarzyna effectofsomepsychoactivedrugsusedaslegalhighsonbrainneurotransmitters
AT noworytasokołowskakarolina effectofsomepsychoactivedrugsusedaslegalhighsonbrainneurotransmitters
AT gorskaanna effectofsomepsychoactivedrugsusedaslegalhighsonbrainneurotransmitters