Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Institute of Medical, Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences, Kanazawa University.
Biol Pharm Bull. 2019;42(8):1433-1436. doi: 10.1248/bpb.b19-00318.
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays critical roles in the development of cocaine addiction. Numerous studies have reported about the effects of cocaine on neuronal and synaptic activities in the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area, which are brain regions associated with cocaine addiction; however, a limited number of studies have reported the effect of cocaine on mPFC neuronal activity. In this study, using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in brain slices, we present that under the condition where synaptic transmission is enhanced by increasing extracellular K concentration, cocaine significantly reduced the frequency but not amplitude of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents. These findings suggest that cocaine exposure could be a trigger to induce hypofrontality, which is related to the compulsive craving for cocaine use.
内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）在可卡因成瘾的发展中起着关键作用。许多研究报告了可卡因对伏隔核和腹侧被盖区神经元和突触活动的影响，这些脑区与可卡因成瘾有关；然而，只有少数研究报告了可卡因对 mPFC 神经元活动的影响。在这项研究中，我们使用脑片全细胞膜片钳记录技术，发现在通过增加细胞外 K 浓度增强突触传递的条件下，可卡因显著降低了自发性兴奋性突触后电流的频率，但不影响其幅度。这些发现表明，可卡因暴露可能是引发额叶功能低下的一个诱因，而额叶功能低下与强迫性的可卡因使用渴望有关。
