Vicarious Social Defeat Increases Conditioned Rewarding Effects of Cocaine and Ethanol Intake in Female Mice.

Stress is a critical factor in the development of mood and drug use disorders. The social defeat model is not appropriate for female rodents due to their low level of aggression. Therefore, a robust female model of social stress needs to be developed and validated.

Cognitive profile of male mice exposed to a Ketogenic Diet.

In recent years, nutritional interventions for different psychiatric diseases have gained increasing attention, such as the ketogenic diet (KD). This has led to positive effects in neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, addiction, autism or epilepsy. The neurobiological mechanisms through which these effects are induced and the effects in cognition still warrant investigation, and considering that other high-fat diets (HFD) can lead to cognitive disturbances that may affect the results achieved, the main aim of the present work was to evaluate the effects of a KD to determine whether it can induce such cognitive effects.

Effects of ketosis on cocaine-induced reinstatement in male mice.

In recent years, the benefits of the ketogenic diet (KD) on different psychiatric disorders have been gaining attention, but the substance abuse field is still unexplored. Some studies have reported that palatable food can modulate the rewarding effects of cocaine, but the negative metabolic consequences rule out the recommendation of using it as a complementary treatment. Thus, the main aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the KD on cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP) during acquisition, extinction, and reinstatement.

Ketogenic Diet Decreases Alcohol Intake in Adult Male Mice.

The classic ketogenic diet is a diet high in fat, low in carbohydrates, and well-adjusted proteins. The reduction in glucose levels induces changes in the body's metabolism, since the main energy source happens to be ketone bodies. Recent studies have suggested that nutritional interventions may modulate drug addiction.

A limited and intermittent access to a high-fat diet modulates the effects of cocaine-induced reinstatement in the conditioned place preference in male and female mice.

Rationale: Palatable food and drugs of abuse activate common neurobiological pathways and numerous studies suggest that fat consumption increases vulnerability to drug abuse. In addition, preclinical reports show that palatable food may relieve craving for drugs, showing that an ad libitum access to a high-fat diet (HFD) can reduce cocaine-induced reinstatement.

Objective: The main aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of a limited and intermittent exposure to HFD administered during the extinction and reinstatement processes of a cocaine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP).

Behavioral and neuroimmune characterization of resilience to social stress: Rewarding effects of cocaine.

Preclinical studies have shown that social stress increases vulnerability to the reinforcing effects of cocaine. However, the results are not always homogeneous, revealing a subpopulation that does not show a preference for cocaine. Thus, the main aim of the present study was to characterize the behavioral profile of resilient mice to the stress-induced rewarding effects of cocaine using an animal model of repeated social defeat stress (SD).