| Title | Cue-induced alcohol-seeking behaviour is reduced by disrupting the reconsolidation of alcohol-related memories. | | Author(s) | von der Goltz C, Vengeliene V, Bilbao A, Perreau-Lenz S, Pawlak CR, Kiefer F, Spanagel R | | Institution | Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany. | | Source | Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2009 May 6. | | Abstract | RATIONALE: In humans, the retrieval of memories associated with an alcohol-related experience frequently evokes alcohol-seeking behaviour. The reconsolidation hypothesis states that a consolidated memory could again become labile and susceptible to disruption after memory retrieval.
OBJECTIVES: The aim of our study was to examine whether retrieval of alcohol-related memories undergoes a reconsolidation process.
METHODS: For this purpose, male Wistar rats were trained to self-administer ethanol in the presence of specific conditioned stimuli. Thereafter, animals were left undisturbed in their home cages for the following 21 days. Memory retrieval was performed in a single 5-min exposure to all alcohol-associated stimuli. The protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin, the non-competitive N-methyl-D: -aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist MK-801 and acamprosate, a clinically used drug known to reduce a hyper-glutamatergic state, were given immediately after retrieval of alcohol-related memories. The impact of drug treatment on cue-induced alcohol-seeking behaviour was measured on the following day and 7 days later.
RESULTS: Administration of both anisomycin and MK-801 reduced cue-induced alcohol-seeking behaviour, showing that memory reconsolidation was disrupted by these compounds. However, acamprosate had no effect on the reconsolidation process, suggesting that this process is not dependent on a hyper-glutamatergic state but is more related to protein synthesis and NMDA receptor activity.
CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacological disruption of reconsolidation of alcohol-associated memories can be achieved by the use of NMDA antagonists and protein synthesis inhibitors and may thus provide a potential new therapeutic strategy for the prevention of relapse in alcohol addiction. | | Language | ENG | | Pub Type(s) | JOURNAL ARTICLE
| | PubMed ID | 19418040 |
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