Repeated intermittent amphetamine enhances efflux of dopamine through the dopamine transporter in rat basal ganglia and through the norepinephrine transporter in rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells. Extracellular Ca2+ is required for the detection of this enhancement in the rat. In this study, we examined the role of Ca2+ and Ca2+ channels in the enhanced amphetamine-induced dopamine efflux that de...

Background Opioid and dopamine systems play crucial roles in reward. Similarities and differences in the neural mechanisms of reward that are mediated by these 2 systems have remained largely unknown. Thus, in the present study, we investigated the differences in reward function in both µ-opioid receptor knockout mice and dopamine transporter knockout mice, important molecules in the opioid and...

Evidence suggests that nicotine and alcohol can each serve as a gateway drug. We determined whether prior treatment would alter amphetamine reward. Also, we examined age dopaminergic neurotransmission are important in this regard. Male female adolescent adult C57BL/6J mice were tested for baseline place preference. Mice then received six conditioning with saline/nicotine (0.25 mg/kg) twice dail...

Methylphenidate is a psychostimulant that inhibits the neuronal dopamine transporter. In addition, methylphenidate has the intriguing ability to provide neuroprotection from the neurotoxic effects of methamphetamine and perhaps also Parkinson's disease; both of which may likely involve the abnormal accumulation of cytoplasmic dopamine inside dopaminergic neurons and the resulting formation of d...

OBJECTIVE The authors examined whether striatal dopamine transporters were altered in acutely (96 hours or less) abstinent cocaine-abusing subjects, as suggested by postmortem studies. METHOD [123I] beta-CIT and single photon emission computed tomography were used to assess striatal dopamine transporter levels in 28 cocaine-abusing subjects and 24 comparison subjects matched as a group for ag...

The stimulant drug amphetamine is postulated to enhance dopamine release through the plasmalemmal dopamine transporter by an exchange diffusion with synaptosomal dopamine. Because protein kinase C has been shown to have an effect on dopamine transporter activity, we examined the effect of protein kinase C inhibitors on endogenous dopamine release stimulated by amphetamine in perfused rat striat...

Abnormal dopamine signaling in brain has been implicated in several conditions such as cocaine abuse, Parkinson's disease and depression. Potent and selective dopamine transporter inhibitors may be useful as pharmacological tools and therapeutic agents. Simple substituted pyridines were discovered as novel dopamine transporter (DAT) inhibitors through pharmacophore-based 3D-database search. The...

We examined the influence of chronic cocaine exposure, in an unlimited access self-administration paradigm, on density of the dopamine transporter (3H-WIN 35,428 and 3H-GBR 12,935 binding) and concentration of monoamine (dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline and metabolites) neurotransmitters in rat brain. In normal rodent striatum 3H-WIN 35,428 and 3H-GBR 12,935 binding to the dopamine transporte...

OBJECTIVE The therapeutic effects of methylphenidate in the treatment of attention deficit disorder have been attributed to its ability to increase the synaptic concentration of dopamine by blocking the dopamine transporters. However, the levels of dopamine transporter blockade achieved by therapeutic doses of methylphenidate are not known. This study measured, for the first time, dopamine tran...