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Role of Dopamine in the Behavioural Responses
to Drugs of Abuse


Using a mouse model, Thomas Hnasko of the Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior and Professor Richard Palmiter have investigated the role of dopamine in the behavioural responses to drugs of abuse.  As first author, Hnasko was interviewed by Nature.

Latency to Tail-Flick
Ambulations
   "Latency to tail-flick" (how long it takes the
   mouse to move its tail away from a noxious
   stimulus) is a standard measure of sensitivity
   to pain.
  This graph shows that dopamine-deficient
   mice are more senstive to thermal stimulus than
   control mice, suggesting that dopamine normally
   suppresses pain.

   "Ambulations" (literally, walking) are a standard
    measure of locomotor activity.
This graph shows
   that
pre-treatment of dopamine-deficient mice with
   L-dopa restores a robust locomotor response to
   morphine.

Hnasko TS, Sotak BN, Palmiter RD (2005) Morphine reward in dopamine-deficient mice.  Nature 438, 854-857.

Abstract

Dopamine has been widely implicated as a mediator of many of the behavioural responses to drugs of abuse. To test the hypothesis that dopamine is an essential mediator of various opiate-induced responses, we administered morphine to mice unable to synthesize dopamine. We found that dopamine-deficient mice are unable to mount a normal locomotor response to morphine, but a small dopamine-independent increase in locomotion remains. Dopamine-deficient mice have a rightward shift in the dose-response curve to morphine on the tail-flick test (a pain sensitivity assay), suggesting either a decreased sensitivity to the analgesic effects of morphine and/or basal hyperalgesia. In contrast, dopamine-deficient mice display a robust conditioned place preference for morphine when given either caffeine or l-dihydroxyphenylalanine (a dopamine precursor that restores dopamine throughout the brain) during the testing phases. Together, these data demonstrate that dopamine is a crucial component of morphine-induced locomotion, dopamine may contribute to morphine analgesia, but that dopamine is not required for morphine-induced reward as measured by conditioned place preference.

Nature interview with first author Hnasko

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2004 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology