Effects of the kappa-opioid receptor agonist, U69593, on the development of sensitization and on the maintenance of cocaine self-administration.

Previous studies showed that prior administration of kappa-opioid agonists decreased the development of sensitization to some of the behavioral effects of cocaine. The present study sought to determine whether the development of sensitization to cocaine's reinforcing effects was also sensitive to antagonism by kappa-opioid agonists. During a pretreatment phase, the kappa-opioid agonist, U69593 (0.0 or 0.32 mg/kg) was administered prior to (1) 2 daily injections of cocaine (0.0 or 20.0 mg/kg), or (2) cocaine or saline administered via a yoking procedure. Cocaine pretreatment decreased the latency to acquisition of cocaine self-administration. However, prior administration of U69593 during the pretreatment phase failed to attenuate the development of this sensitized response to cocaine's reinforcing effect. In other groups, the effect of acute U69593 pretreatment on the maintenance of cocaine self-administration was examined during a 10 hr session. During training and testing, a stimulus was associated with each self-administered cocaine infusion for one group whereas responding of another group was reinforced by a cocaine infusion alone. On the test day, pretreatment with U69593 (0.32 mg/kg) decreased responding during each hour of the 10 hr session for the group that was reinforced with cocaine plus the cocaine-associated stimulus. U69593 failed to produce a long-lasting disruption of cocaine self-administration for rats that were trained and tested without the cocaine-associated stimulus. These data suggest that the acquisition and maintenance of cocaine self-administration are differentially sensitive to manipulations of kappa-opioid systems. Further, the disruption of cocaine self-administration by U69593 may be due to interactions with mechanisms that underlie facilitative effects of stimuli that have been associated with self-administered cocaine infusions.