Funada Masahiko, Sato Mio, Aoo Naoya, Wada Kiyoshi
Department of Drug Dependence Research, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1 Ogawa-higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187-8553, Japan.
Nihon Arukoru Yakubutsu Igakkai Zasshi. 2006 Feb;41(1):31-8.
Abuse of volatile organic solvents among youth remains a major social problem in Japan. Organic solvents are cheap and relatively easy to obtain, so they carry the risk of becoming a so-called "gate-way drug" for users. Psychological dependence assessment systems have been established for drug inhalation using the conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure. We found toluene produced the rewarding effect in this new CPP system. The mesolimbic dopamine pathway, which includes dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the midbrain and their targets in the limbic forebrain, especially the nucleus accumbens (NAC), is one of the most important substrates for the development of psychological dependence on drugs such as stimulants, cocaine, and heroin. Recently, it has indicated that the VTA-NAC pathway (monoamine system) may play an important role of the expression of psychological dependence on the volatile organic solvent toluene. Clarification of organic solvent's mechanism for the development of psychological dependence focusing on the monoamine system can be exploited for the new medicine and useful treatments for dependence on toluene.
在日本，青少年滥用挥发性有机溶剂仍是一个主要的社会问题。有机溶剂价格低廉且相对容易获取，因此它们有成为使用者所谓“入门毒品”的风险。已经建立了使用条件性位置偏爱（CPP）程序对药物吸入进行心理依赖评估的系统。我们发现在这个新的CPP系统中甲苯产生了奖赏效应。中脑边缘多巴胺通路，包括中脑腹侧被盖区（VTA）的多巴胺能神经元及其在边缘前脑的靶点，特别是伏隔核（NAC），是对兴奋剂、可卡因和海洛因等药物产生心理依赖发展过程中最重要的底物之一。最近，有研究表明VTA-NAC通路（单胺系统）可能在对挥发性有机溶剂甲苯产生心理依赖的表达中起重要作用。以单胺系统为重点阐明有机溶剂产生心理依赖的机制，可用于开发治疗甲苯依赖的新药和有效疗法。
