Ability of 3-carboxysalsolinol to produce ethanol-like discrimination in rats.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the possible generalization to 3-carboxysalsolinol (3C-SAL) in a group of rats trained to discriminate a low dose of ethanol (200 mg/kg IP) from the nondrug condition and in antoher group trained to discriminate 0.16 mg/kg IP apomorphine (AP) from the nondrug condition using a drug discrimination paradigm. In test sessions, ED50 for ethanol was 52.0 mg/kg and ED50 for AP was 0.01 mg/kg. In the ethanol-trained rats, 1.8 mg/kg 3C-SAL produced drug responses. In the AP-trained rats, 200 mg/kg ethanol produced drug responses whereas 1.8 mg/kg 3C-SAL produced only a partial drug response. The results are in harmony with the hypothesis that salsolinol in the central nervous system of the rat may be responsible for the discriminability of ethanol. The possible involvement of dopaminergic systems is discussed.