Orexin/hypocretin is necessary for context-driven cocaine-seeking. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Orexin/hypocretin signaling at the orexin 1 receptor (OX(1)R) has recently been implicated in addiction and relapse. We examined the role of the orexin system in cocaine-seeking elicited by a drug-associated context following abstinence or extinction from chronic cocaine self-administration. Male Sprague-Dawley rats self-administered cocaine in 2-h sessions for 10 days, followed by extinction training or extended abstinence in the home cage. The OX(1)R antagonist SB-334867 (SB; 10, 20, or 30 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered prior to re-exposure to the cocaine self-administration environment. We found that pretreatment with SB significantly attenuated cocaine-seeking when rats were placed back into the self-administration environment following either 1 day or 2 weeks of abstinence (no extinction), or following extinction of cocaine-seeking in an alternative environment (distinct from the training environment). These results indicate that orexin signaling at OX(1)R is critical for conditioned cocaine-seeking elicited by a drug-associated context, following either extinction or abstinence.

published proceedings

  • Neuropharmacology

altmetric score

  • 6

author list (cited authors)

  • Smith, R. J., Tahsili-Fahadan, P., & Aston-Jones, G.

citation count

  • 123

complete list of authors

  • Smith, Rachel J||Tahsili-Fahadan, Pouya||Aston-Jones, Gary

publication date

  • January 2010