Comparison of cocaine- and methamphetamine-evoked dopamine and glutamate overflow in somatodendritic and terminal field regions of the rat brain during acute, chronic, and early withdrawal conditions.

Methamphetamine and cocaine are among the most commonly abused psychostimulants. Repeated injections of psychostimulants produce behavioral sensitization or augmented locomotion in rats. Behavioral sensitization to methamphetamine and cocaine is long lasting and persists after cessation of drug treatment. Because dopamine and glutamate are major neurotransmitters of the neostriatum, we evaluated the profile of cocaine- or methamphetamine-evoked dopamine and glutamate overflow in the caudate putamen, nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmental area, and substantia nigra compacta of the rat brain. We also compared acute exposure to these drugs with chronic treatment and early withdrawal. Acute injection of methamphetamine (1 mg/kg of body weight) or cocaine (10 mg/kg) resulted in elevated levels of extracellular dopamine in all brain regions measured, although the magnitude of increase varied between brain regions. Overall, methamphetamine caused more dopamine to accumulate in the extracellular space than did cocaine when administered to animals during early withdrawal (7 days of daily injections and challenge on day 11). For example, a challenge injection of methamphetamine produced a greater elevation of extracellular dopamine in the caudate putamen when compared to acute (naïve) exposure. By contrast, a challenge injection of cocaine resulted in dopamine levels in the caudate putamen that were lower than those observed for acute exposure. In the ventral tegmental area and the substantia nigra compacta, a challenge injection of methamphetamine or cocaine resulted in extracellular dopamine levels that were lower than those for acute exposure. Thus, it appears that behavioral sensitization to cocaine can be sustained during early withdrawal in the absence of augmented drug-evoked dopamine overflow. Acute injection of methamphetamine or cocaine did not change extracellular levels of glutamate in the neostriatum. Cocaine challenge (early withdrawal) increased glutamate overflow in the caudate putamen and the nucleus accumbens. In contrast, methamphetamine challenge increased glutamate overflow in the caudate putamen, but it decreased glutamate in the nucleus accumbens. In the ventral tegmental area and the substantia nigra compacta, acute methamphetamine exposure decreased glutamate overflow, but acute cocaine exposure increased it. Although amphetamines and cocaine induce similar behavioral responses, the results presented here demonstrate that at the neurochemical level (neurotransmitter release) they sometimes evoke opposite effects depending on the brain region studied and the duration of drug treatment. Moreover, the sensitized augmentation of locomotor activity observed by us and others in response to a challenge injection of cocaine is not dependent on elevation of the extracellular concentration of dopamine in the neostriatum. We are currently investigating the hypothesis that cocaine activates peptidergic systems of the neostriatum and that these systems modulate the synaptic release of dopamine in response to psychostimulants.