Psychedelics have garnered significant interest for their therapeutic potential in mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. While research has primarily focused on well-studied psychedelics, phenethylamine derivatives have also gathered interest for their potential therapeutic applications. Thus, this study aims to investigate the pharmacological...
In the reward circuitry of the brain, α-7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (α7nAChRs) modulate effects of Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), marijuana's main psychoactive ingredient. Kynurenic acid (KYNA) is an endogenous negative allosteric modulator of α7nAChRs. Here we report that the kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (KMO) inhibitor Ro 61-8048 increases brain KYNA levels and attenuates...
Although delta-9-tetreahydrocannabinol (THC)-induced elevations in accumbal dopamine levels are believed to play an important role in the abuse-related effects of cannabis, little direct evidence has been provided that the dopaminergic system is involved in the psychotropic effects of THC. The objective of this study is to investigate whether drugs activating or blocking the dopaminergic system...
Cannabis is the most commonly abused illegal drug in the world and its main psychoactive ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), produces rewarding effects in humans and non-human primates. Over the last several decades, an endogenous system comprised of cannabinoid receptors, endogenous ligands for these receptors and enzymes responsible for the synthesis and degradation of these...
Systemic administration of the main active ingredient in cannabis, Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), alters extracellular levels of acetylcholine in several brain areas, suggesting an involvement of the cholinergic system in the psychotropic effects of cannabis. Here, we investigated whether drugs acting at either nicotinic or muscarinic receptors can modulate the discriminative effects of...
Anandamide is an endogenous ligand for brain cannabinoid CB(1) receptors, but its behavioral effects are difficult to measure due to rapid inactivation. Here we used a drug-discrimination procedure to test the hypothesis that anandamide, given i.v. or i.p., would produce discriminative effects like those of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in rats when its metabolic inactivation was...
Although anecdotal reports suggest that cannabis may be used to alleviate symptoms of depression, the psychotropic effects and abuse liability of this drug prevent its therapeutic application. The active constituent of cannabis, delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol, acts by binding to brain CB1 cannabinoid receptors, but an alternative approach might be to develop agents that amplify the actions of...
Many behavioral effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), including its discriminative-stimulus effects, are modulated by endogenous opioid systems. To investigate opioid receptor subtypes involved in the discriminative effects of THC. Rats trained to discriminate 3 mg/kg i.p. of THC from vehicle using a two-lever operant drug-discrimination procedure, were tested with compounds that bind...