Effects of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 on latent inhibition in conditioned taste aversion.

Latent inhibition (LI) is a phenomenon by which pre-exposure of a conditioned stimulus (CS) prior to the CS-unconditioned stimulus (US) pairings retards conditioned responding (CR). LI has been demonstrated in a variety of learning tasks including conditioned taste aversion (CTA). Earlier work has shown that systemic administration of 2-methyl-6-(phenylethynyl)-pyridine (MPEP), a selective metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGlu5) antagonist, is able to disrupt classical conditioning in CTA. The present study investigated the involvement of mGlu5 receptors in LI using a CTA procedure. In the first experiment, rats received either water (non-pre-exposed, NPE) or a saccharin solution (pre-exposed, PE) on 2 consecutive days. The animals then received conditioning in which a fixed amount of saccharin was paired with lithium chloride and then the CR to the taste was tested. Either MPEP (3, 6, 12 mg/kg) or vehicle was injected intraperitoneally prior to taste pre-exposure or testing. Animals in the vehicle control groups displayed LI. MPEP injections before pre-exposure trials attenuated LI but also reduced consumption during pre-exposure, which obscured interpretation of the LI effect. The second experiment used four pre-exposure trials and controlled access to fixed amount of the solutions during the pre-exposure as well as the conditioning trials. Rats were injected before pre-exposure trials but not before the test trial. The results found that MPEP attenuates latent inhibition suggesting that the mGlu5 receptor exerts an influence on the processes that underlie the effects of taste pre-exposure on conditioning.

Pharmacological and endocrinological characterisation of stress-induced hyperthermia in singly housed mice using classical and candidate anxiolytics (LY314582, MPEP and NKP608).

The stress-induced hyperthermia test is a paradigm developed several years ago to model the expression of autonomic hyperactivity in anxiety. Whereas in the classical stress-induced hyperthermia, cohort removal was used, in a recently described modification of the stress-induced hyperthermia model singly housed mice rather than groups of mice were used. The modification of this model can be summarized as follows: rectal temperature is recorded in singly housed animals at two consecutive time-points (T1 and T2) which are interspaced by a defined time-interval (15 min). Since the value at the second temperature-recording exceeds the value of the initial measure it is the difference between these two core-temperatures which reflects stress-induced hyperthermia. In the present study, the stress-induced hyperthermia paradigm, in its modified design, was evaluated in OF1/IC mice. By comparing the effect of various compounds in both the modified as well as the classical (cohort removal) stress-induced hyperthermia paradigm, a very high correlation was found for the pharmacological sensitivity of the two paradigms. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that other anxiolytics, all known to be active in the classical stress-induced hyperthermia paradigm, such as the benzodiazepines chlordiazepoxide (0.3, 1, 3, 10 mg/kg, p.o.), diazepam (0.1, 0.3, 1, 3 mg/kg, p.o.), clobazam (5 or 10 mg/kg, p.o.) and oxazepam (5 or 10 mg/kg, p.o.) as well as the non-benzodiazepines buspirone (7.5 or 15 mg/kg, p.o.) and ethanol (15% or 30%, 10 ml/kg, p.o.), showed a marked reduction in stress-induced hyperthermia in the modified design. New candidate anxiolytics, i.e. the metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptor group 2 agonist LY314582 (1 or 10 mg/kg, p.o.; racemic mixture of LY354740 ((2S,4S)-2-amino-4-(4,4-diphenylbut-1-yl)-pentane-1,5-dioic acid), the metabotropic glutamate 5 receptor antagonist MPEP (1, 7.5, 15 or 30 mg/kg, p.o.; 2-methyl-6-(phenylethynyl)pyridine) and the neurokinin 1 (NK1) receptor antagonist NKP608 (0.01 or 0.1 mg/kg, p.o.; quinoline-4-carboxylic acid [trans-(2R,4S)-1-(3,5-bis-trifluoromethyl-benzoyl)-2-(4-chloro-benzyl)-piperidin-4-yl]-amide) also reduced stress-induced hyperthermia in the modified paradigm clearly indicating anxiolytic-like activity for these compounds. Finally, the effects of the classical benzodiazepine chlordiazepoxide (10 mg/kg, p.o.), in parallel with its effect on stress-induced hyperthermia, were also investigated for its effect on plasma concentrations of the two stress hormones, adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and corticosterone. It was shown that all three parameters were significantly increased 15 min after T1 in vehicle-treated mice whereas the increase was significantly attenuated following pre-treatment with chlordiazepoxide. In conclusion, all the data presented here indicate that the modified version of the stress-induced hyperthermia-paradigm is a valid and interesting alternative to the classical stress-induced hyperthermia test.

Behavioral characterization of the novel GABAB receptor-positive modulator GS39783 (N,N'-dicyclopentyl-2-methylsulfanyl-5-nitro-pyrimidine-4,6-diamine): anxiolytic-like activity without side effects associated with baclofen or benzodiazepines.

The role of GABAB receptors in various behavioral processes has been largely defined using the prototypical GABAB receptor agonist baclofen. However, baclofen induces sedation, hypothermia and muscle relaxation, which may interfere with its use in behavioral paradigms. Although there is much evidence for a role of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in the pathophysiology of anxiety, the role of GABAB receptors in these disorders is largely unclear. We recently identified GS39783 (N,N'-dicyclopentyl-2-methylsulfanyl-5-nitro-pyrimidine-4,6-diamine) as a selective allosteric positive modulator at GABAB receptors. The aim of the present study was to broadly characterize the effects of GS39783 in well-validated rodent models for motor activity, cognition, and anxiety. The following tests were included: locomotor activity in rats and mice, rotarod and traction tests (including determinations of core temperature) in mice, passive avoidance in mice and rats, elevated plus maze in rats, elevated zero maze in mice and rats, stress-induced hyperthermia in mice, and pentobarbital- and ethanol-induced sleep in mice. Unlike baclofen and/or the benzodiazepine chlordiazepoxide, GS39783 had no effect in any of the tests for locomotion, cognition, temperature, or narcosis. Most interestingly, GS39783 had anxiolytic-like effects in all the tests used. Overall, the data obtained here suggest that positive modulation of GABAB receptors may serve as a novel therapeutic strategy for the development of anxiolytics, with a superior side effect profile to both baclofen and benzodiazepines.