[The biological mechanisms of a congenital predisposition to alcoholism].

In descendants of white rats with chronic alcoholic intoxication, the contents of DA in the brain and blood plasma, characteristics of GABA and opiate brain receptors, the contents of cAMP and other substances were studied as well as the c-fos gene expression. The data obtained suggest a considerable role of the changes in the DA system functions in the genesis of pathology in these descendants.

[The effect of naloxone on the activation, inducible by chronic alcoholic intoxication, of the membrane-bound form of enkephalin convertase in the midbrain and hypothalamus of rats].

The activity of membrane-bound and soluble enkephalin convertase was determined with dansyl-Phe-Leu-Arg as substrate in midbrain, including hypothalamus, of Wistar rats, who were given ethanol (20% solution i.g., 9-15 g/kg per day during 4 days) or naloxone (2 mg/kg i.

[The action of low doses of bromocryptin in experimental morphine abstinence in rats].

In experiments on rats which consumed for a long time morphine solution as a drinking liquid there was studied the effect of low doses of bromocriptine on the behavioural manifestations of morphine abstinence syndrome and the condition of the noradrenergic, dopaminergic and conjugated GABAergic systems of the brain. It was shown that the preliminary administration of bromocriptine decreased the degree of the withdrawal syndrome that correlated with the restoration of dopamine content and the normalization of the condition of D2-dopaminergic receptors in different regions of the brain. Bromocriptine exerted no influence on the morphine withdrawal-induced changes in the condition of GABA receptors of the cerebral cortex.

[The similarity of the pathogenetic mechanisms of alcoholism and drug dependence and the means of searching for agents for treating these diseases].

The concept of the principal unity of the pivotal mechanisms underlying the formation of the syndrome of dependence on alcohol and various narcotic agents is presented. The central link of the mechanisms is the totality of the specific disturbances of neurochemical processes among which of particular importance are the specific changes in the functional state of catecholamine system. The theoretical approaches to the development of medicinal agents for treating alcoholism and drug addictions are considered.

[Effect of bromocriptine in experimental alcoholism in rats of both sexes].

It has been shown in experiments on intact rats that bromocriptin (1 mg/kg) produces opposite changes on the self-stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus: facilitates it in females and inhibits in males, whereas administered in a dose of 10 mg/kg inhibits it in animals of both sexes. It has been established in experiments on rats preferring ethanol to water that the drug in a dose of 1 mg/kg reduces the degree of ethanol preference only in females while the dose of ethanol consumption declines in animals of both sexes. Besides, bromocriptin decreases the rate of ethanol elimination from blood (3-fold in females, and 1.