Biochemical changes precede affective and cognitive anomalies in aging adult C57BL/6J mice with a prior history of adolescent alcohol binge-drinking.

The early initiation of binge-drinking and biological sex are critical risk factors for the development of affective disturbances and cognitive decline, as well as neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease. Further, a history of excessive alcohol consumption alters normal age-related changes in the pattern of protein expression in the brain, which may relate to an acceleration of cognitive decline. Here, we aimed to disentangle the interrelation between a history of binge-drinking during adolescence, biological sex and normal aging on the manifestation of negative affect, cognitive decline and associated biochemical pathology.

Neuropharmacological Evidence Implicating Drug-Induced Glutamate Receptor Dysfunction in Affective and Cognitive Sequelae of Subchronic Methamphetamine Self-Administration in Mice.

Methamphetamine (MA) is a highly addictive drug, and MA use disorder is often comorbid with anxiety and cognitive impairment. These comorbid conditions are theorized to reflect glutamate-related neurotoxicity within the frontal cortical regions. However, our prior studies of MA-sensitized mice indicate that subchronic, behaviorally non-contingent MA treatment is sufficient to dysregulate glutamate transmission in mouse brain.

A subchronic history of binge-drinking elicits mild, age- and sex-selective, affective, and cognitive anomalies in C57BL/6J mice.

Introduction: Alcohol abuse is a risk factor for affective and cognitive disorders, with evidence indicating that adolescent-onset excessive drinking can result in long-term deficiencies in emotional regulation and cognition, with females more susceptible to the negative emotional and cognitive consequences of excessive alcohol consumption. However, our prior examination of the interactions between sex and the age of drinking-onset indicated minimal signs of anxiety-like behavior during alcohol withdrawal, which may have related to the concurrent anxiety testing of male and female subjects.

Methods: The present study addressed this potential confound by assaying for alcohol withdrawal-induced negative affect separately in males and females and expanded our investigation to include measures of spatial and working memory.