Cocaine Over Conditioned Place Preference (CPP)

Introduction Cocaine is said to be an effective drug due to its ability to induce a sense of craving and its effectiveness highly correlates to its potential to lead to drug abuse in humans. Despite devastating consequences from drug abuse and addiction, the goal to attain the drug is often placed above others, which is especially shown in animal model experiments. According to the 2014 National Survey of Drug Use and Health an estimate of 1.5 million people aged 12 and older were current users of cocaine. Conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm was utilized in this study where the mice’s preference of a compartment paired with cocaine to a compartment not paired with cocaine was measured. Conditioned place preference was produced if the …show more content…
This study is to determine whether the over expression of HuD in the transgenic mice had an affect on BDNF and CamKII protein levels, producing an overall stronger CPP behavior. To fully comprehend the mechanisms underlying the development in cocaine CPP mice, this study will focus on CamKII and BDNF protein levels in the dorsal striatum, a key region in the brain’s reward system and formation of habit learning. An over expression of the RNA-binding protein, HuD, could lead to an increase in protein levels of CamKII and BDNF. Knowing the strong roles both CamKII and BDNF play in drug addiction and CPP, a possible increase in protein levels could explain the stronger CPP behavior. It has been mentioned that the levels of protein in areas such as the dorsal striatum and NAc is not as abundant as the rest of the mesolimbic dopamine system (Li, Wolf, 2015), so if it is shown that there are significant increases in protein levels in these areas it supports the hypothesis of their involvement in the increase of …show more content…
With corroboration of increased BDNF protein levels correlating to an increased CPP, positive results can provide stronger supporting evidence in HuD’s role in regulating BDNF, ultimately affecting addiction. Similarly if there is an increase in CamKII protein levels it will also provide stronger evidence in HuD’s role in regulating CamKII leading to the development and conditioned place preference in cocaine treated mice. If both protein levels are shown to be significantly increased in the dorsal striatum it could lead to the idea that HuD’s regulation of BDNF and CamKII in the dorsal striatum is important in the formation of habit learning and a factor in CPP as well. There is also a possibility of no significant change in protein levels for either BDNF or CamKII possibly meaning other HuD targets could have a greater impact on the difference in CPP. Since this study is focusing on the dorsal striatum, no change in protein levels could also be due to the region of