RATIONALE: Salvinorin A is a recreational drug derived from Salvia divinorum, a sage species long used as an entheogen. While salvinorin A has potent hallucinogenic properties, its abuse potential has not been assessed consistently in controlled behavioural and neurochemical studies in rodents. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess salvinorin A abuse potential by measuring its capacity to establish and maintain self-administration behaviour and to modify dopamine (DA) levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) of rats. RESULTS: Male Lister Hooded (LH) and Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were allowed to self-administer salvinorin A (0.5 or 1.0 μg/kg/infusion) intravenously 2 h/day for 20 days under a continuous schedule of reinforcement and lever pressing as operandum. LH rats discriminated between the active and inactive levers but did not reach the acquisition criterion for stable self-administration (≥12 active responses vs ≤5 inactive responses for at least 5 consecutive days). SD rats discriminated between the two levers at the lower dose only but, like LH rats, never acquired stable self-administration behaviour. Systemic salvinorin A increased extracellular DA in the NAcc shell of both LH (at ≥40 μg/kg) and SD rats (at ≥5 μg/kg), but injection into the ventral tegmental area (VTA) induced no significant change in NAcc DA concentration in LH rats and only brief elevations in SD rats. CONCLUSIONS: Salvinorin A differs from other commonly abused compounds since although it affects accumbal dopamine transmission, yet it is unable, at least at the tested doses, to sustain stable intravenous self-administration behaviour.
RATIONALE: Salvinorin A is a recreational drug derived from Salvia divinorum, a sage species long used as an entheogen. While salvinorin A has potent hallucinogenic properties, its abuse potential has not been assessed consistently in controlled behavioural and neurochemical studies in rodents. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess salvinorin A abuse potential by measuring its capacity to establish and maintain self-administration behaviour and to modify dopamine (DA) levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) of rats. RESULTS: Male Lister Hooded (LH) and Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were allowed to self-administer salvinorin A (0.5 or 1.0 μg/kg/infusion) intravenously 2 h/day for 20 days under a continuous schedule of reinforcement and lever pressing as operandum. LHrats discriminated between the active and inactive levers but did not reach the acquisition criterion for stable self-administration (≥12 active responses vs ≤5 inactive responses for at least 5 consecutive days). SD rats discriminated between the two levers at the lower dose only but, like LHrats, never acquired stable self-administration behaviour. Systemic salvinorin A increased extracellular DA in the NAcc shell of both LH (at ≥40 μg/kg) and SD rats (at ≥5 μg/kg), but injection into the ventral tegmental area (VTA) induced no significant change in NAcc DA concentration in LHrats and only brief elevations in SD rats. CONCLUSIONS:Salvinorin A differs from other commonly abused compounds since although it affects accumbal dopamine transmission, yet it is unable, at least at the tested doses, to sustain stable intravenous self-administration behaviour.
Authors: Christopher R McCurdy; Kenneth J Sufka; Grant H Smith; Jason E Warnick; Marcelo J Nieto Journal: Pharmacol Biochem Behav Date: 2006-01-23 Impact factor: 3.533
Authors: Richard B Rothman; Daniel L Murphy; Heng Xu; Jonathan A Godin; Christina M Dersch; John S Partilla; Kevin Tidgewell; Matthew Schmidt; Thomas E Prisinzano Journal: J Pharmacol Exp Ther Date: 2006-10-23 Impact factor: 4.030
Authors: Mitchell T Harden; Staci E Smith; Jennifer A Niehoff; Christopher R McCurdy; George T Taylor Journal: Behav Pharmacol Date: 2012-10 Impact factor: 2.293