Cocaine self-administration induces sex-dependent protein expression in the nucleus accumbens.

Substance use disorder (SUD) is a chronic neuropsychiatric condition characterized by long-lasting alterations in the neural circuitry regulating reward and motivation. Substantial work has focused on characterizing the molecular substrates that underlie these persistent changes in neural function and behavior. However, this work has overwhelmingly focused on male subjects, despite mounting clinical and preclinical evidence that females demonstrate dissimilar progression to SUD and responsivity to stimulant drugs of abuse, such as cocaine. Here, we show that sex is a critical biological variable that defines drug-induced plasticity in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Using quantitative mass spectrometry, we assessed the protein expression patterns induced by cocaine self-administration and demonstrated unique molecular profiles between males and females. We show that 1. Cocaine self-administration induces non-overlapping protein expression patterns in significantly regulated proteins in males and females and 2. Critically, cocaine-induced protein regulation differentially interacts with sex to eliminate basal sexual dimorphisms in the proteome. Finally, eliminating these baseline differences in the proteome is concomitant with the elimination of sex differences in behavior for non-drug rewards. Together, these data suggest that cocaine administration is capable of rewriting basal proteomic function and reward-associated behaviors.

Evaluation of the Fight BAC! The Story of Your Dinner Campaign Video: A Multistate Study.

ABSTRACT: This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the holiday food safety campaign, "The Story of Your Dinner," launched in 2016 by the Partnership for Food Safety Education. The campaign was designed to change knowledge, risk perception, and perceived behavioral control ideas among U.S. consumers. Results from the study, conducted from 2016 through 2018, were analyzed overall and among specific demographic groups. For respondents from all 3 years, overall knowledge significantly increased from presurvey to postsurvey. Survey findings indicated that after viewing the educational intervention, adult respondents were significantly more confident in their ability to use a food thermometer while cooking small cuts of meat and poultry and developed a significantly higher perception of the risk of suffering from foodborne illness. The educational intervention was more effective for changing risk perception and perceived behavioral control among some demographic groups. Respondent risk perception and perceived behavioral control significantly increased in more categories for adolescents than for adults. Consumers tended to overestimate their safe food handling practices. Prior to the educational intervention, adult respondents rated themselves highly (5.49 ± 1.64 of 7.00) on their confidence in cooking meat and poultry that is safe to eat. However, these respondents were less comfortable complying with the safe food handling practice of using a thermometer on small (4.47 ± 1.98) and large (4.61 ± 2.02) cuts of meat and poultry. More educational interventions are needed to improve compliance with safe food handling in home kitchens. Future studies will be conducted to identify and address barriers to food safety behavioral change among various population groups.