Overview of Methamphetamine-Associated Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Topic Importance: The global surge in methamphetamine use is a critical public health concern, particularly due to its robust correlation with methamphetamine-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (MA-PAH). This association raises urgent alarms about the potential escalation of MA-PAH incidence, posing a significant and imminent challenge to global public health.

Review Findings: This comprehensive review meticulously explores MA-PAH, offering insights into its epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnostic intricacies, and management strategies.

Effects of a methamphetamine vaccine, IXT-v100, on methamphetamine-related behaviors.

Rationale: Vaccines have been developed as a potential treatment for methamphetamine (meth) use disorder (MUD). Immunization with the meth vaccine IXT-v100 has previously been shown to elicit antibodies with high affinity for meth and thus may be an effective treatment for MUD.

Objectives: These studies were designed to determine the efficacy of IXT-v100 on meth-taking and meth-seeking behaviors in rats.

Lack of effect of the combination of metyrapone and oxazepam on brain dopamine.

The combination of metyrapone and oxazepam (Met-Ox) has recently shown promise as a pharmacotherapy for cocaine use disorder. Metyrapone is available clinically and is typically used to diagnose adrenal insufficiency, while oxazepam is often prescribed to treat anxiety. The combination of low doses of metyrapone and oxazepam has been shown to significantly attenuate cocaine self-administration and cue-reactivity in rats, as well as decrease the number of subjects that used cocaine in a pilot clinical trial.

Effects of the combination of metyrapone and oxazepam on cocaine-induced increases in corticosterone in the medial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens.

We have previously demonstrated that a combination of drugs (i.e., metyrapone and oxazepam) known to attenuate HPA-axis activity effectively decreases cocaine self-administration and cue reactivity in rats.

Combinations of oxazepam and metyrapone attenuate cocaine and methamphetamine cue reactivity.

Background: We have previously reported that combining low doses of oxazepam and metyrapone (OX/MET) reduces intravenous cocaine self-administration without affecting stress-hormone levels. We hypothesized that the combination of OX/MET would also inhibit the reinstatement of cocaine or methamphetamine seeking induced by the presentation of a conditioned reinforcer and that stress hormone levels would not be influenced by this treatment.

Methods: Male rats were implanted with jugular catheters and trained to self-administer cocaine or methamphetamine during daily 2-h sessions.

Biphasic dopamine regulation in mesoaccumbens pathway in response to non-contingent binge and escalating methamphetamine regimens in the Wistar rat.

Rationale: Methamphetamine (MA) increases extracellular dopamine (DA) and at chronic high doses induces toxicity as indicated by decreased expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and dopamine transporter (DAT). Notably, rats will self-administer MA in escalating quantities producing such toxicity. However, the impact of MA at sub-toxic doses on DA regulation is not well established.