The cocaine aptamer has been seen as a good candidate for development as a probe for cocaine in many contexts. Here, we demonstrate that the aptamer binds cocaine, norcocaine, and cocaethylene with similar affinities and aminoglycosides with similar or higher affinities in a mutually exclusive manner with cocaine. Analysis of its affinities for a series of cocaine derivatives shows that the apt...

A promising approach in treating cocaine abuse is to metabolize cocaine in the blood using a mutated butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) that functions as a cocaine hydrolase (CocH). In rats, a helper-dependent adenoviral (hdAD) vector-mediated delivery of CocH abolished ongoing cocaine use and cocaine-primed reinstatement of drug-seeking for several months. This enzyme also metabolizes ghrelin, an ef...

The aim of this study was to see how nifedipine counters the effects of cocaine on hepatic and brain enzymatic activity in rats and whether it affects urinary excretion of cocaine. Male Wistar rats were divided in four groups of six: control, nifedipine group (5 mg kg-1i.p. a day for five days); cocaine group (15 mg kg-1i.p. a day for five days), and the nifedipine+cocaine group. Twenty-four ho...

Cocaine addiction and overdose have long defied specific treatment. To provide a new approach, the high-activity catalytic antibody mAb 15A10 was elicited using a transition-state analog for the hydrolysis of cocaine to nontoxic, nonaddictive products. In a model of cocaine overdose, mAb 15A10 protected rats from cocaine-induced seizures and sudden death in a dose-dependent fashion; a noncataly...

Both humans and animals exhibit marked individual differences in cocaine responsiveness. By using the median split of cocaine-induced locomotor activity, we have classified outbred male Sprague-Dawley rats as either low or high cocaine responders (LCRs or HCRs, respectively). LCR/HCR classification predicts differences in cocaine inhibition of striatal dopamine (DA) transporters (DATs), cocaine...

Psychostimulant-induced reinstatement of place preferences have been used to investigate underlying physiological mechanisms mediating drug-seeking behavior in adolescent and adult rodents; however, it is still unclear how psychostimulant exposure during adolescence affects neuronal communication in the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) pathway and whether these changes would elicit enhanced drug-seekin...

BACKGROUND Prenatal exposure of the developing brain to cocaine causes morphological and behavioral abnormalities. Recent studies indicate that cocaine-induced proliferation inhibition and/or apoptosis in neural progenitor cells may play a pivotal role in causing these abnormalities. To understand the molecular mechanism through which cocaine inhibits cell proliferation in neural progenitors, w...

Background Drug memories become labile and reconsolidated after retrieval by presentation of environmental cues (conditioned stimulus) or drugs (unconditioned stimulus). Whether conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus retrieval trigger different memory reconsolidation processes is not clear. Methods Protein synthesis inhibitor or β-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) antagonist was systemicall...

BACKGROUND The specific pathogenesis of increased vulnerability to cocaine-induced paranoia/psychosis is unknown. Weight loss has been long observed in patients abusing stimulants (including cocaine and the amphetamines). In the current study, we compared Body Mass Index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters) in Cocaine-Induced Psychosis cases, referred to...

Cocaine has been implicated in many rheumatologic conditions. Recognition of these syndromes is important for appropriate diagnosis and management because they often are confused and misdiagnosis results. The principal effects of cocaine are seen in the CNS and the corticomesolimbic dopamine reward pathway. Whether cocaine itself or in combination with host proteins is immunogenic and whether s...