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A comparison of the discriminative stimulus effects of delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol and O-1812, a potent and metabolically stable anandamide analog, in rats.

Jenny L Wiley, Kari L LaVecchia, Natalie E Karp, Sanjitha Kulasegram, Anu Mahadevan, Raj K Razdan, Billy R Martin

Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology August 2004 DOI: 10.1037/1064-1297.12.3.173 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Animal discrimination study Peer reviewed
Population Rats trained to discriminate Delta(9)-THC or O-1812 from vehicle
Interventions Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta(9)-THC) O-1812 SR141716A O-1839
Topics Cannabis
Key points O-1812 and Delta(9)-THC substituted for each other in drug discrimination, but both were more potent in O-1812-trained rats, and O-1812 substituted for Delta(9)-THC only at response-rate-decreasing doses. SR141716A blocked the discriminative stimulus effects of both drugs while augmenting their rate effects, and the VR(1) agonist O-1839 did not substitute for either. The authors suggest the discriminative stimulus effects of Delta(9)-THC and O-1812 are similar but subtly different.

Abstract

Efforts to determine whether Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta(9)-THC) and anandamide elicit similar discriminative stimulus effects have yielded conflicting results. The difficulty in establishing a discriminative cue to anandamide may be due to its metabolic instability. Rats were trained to discriminate either Delta(9)-THC or O-1812, a metabolically stable anandamide analog, from vehicle to avoid this issue. O-1812 and Delta(9)-THC substituted for each other; however, both drugs were more potent in the O-1812-trained rats. Further, O-1812 only substituted for Delta(9)-THC at response rate decreasing doses. The CB(1) antagonist, SR141716A, blocked the discriminative stimulus effects of both drugs but augmented their rate effects. O-1839, a VR(1) agonist, failed to substitute for either cannabinoid. These results suggest that the discriminative stimulus effects of Delta(9)-THC and O-1812 are similar, but subtle differences also exist.

Comparable studies

Other preclinical and animal studies on cannabis, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Cognitive Impairment Induced by Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol Occurs through Heteromers between Cannabinoid CB1 and Serotonin 5-HT2A Receptors Mice 2015 Preclinical study
Interaction of drugs of abuse and maintenance treatments with human P-glycoprotein (ABCB1) and breast cancer resistance protein (ABCG2). hMDR1- and hBCRP-transfected HEK293 cells and hMDR1- and hBCRP-MDCKII cells 2010 In vitro study
Long-term hippocampal interneuronopathy drives sex-dimorphic spatial memory impairment induced by prenatal THC exposure Mice prenatally exposed to THC, including conditional CB1R knockout mice 2020 Animal experimental study
Chronic cannabis promotes pro-hallucinogenic signaling of 5-HT2A receptors through Akt/mTOR pathway Mice exposed to chronic THC early in life 2018 Animal experimental study
Effects of cannabinoid drugs on the deficit of prepulse inhibition of startle in an animal model of schizophrenia: the SHR strain Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) and Wistar rats 2014 Animal experimental study

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