[Alcohol consumption and anti-alcohol effect of afobazol in MR and NMRA rats].

Dynamics of the alcohol intake variation in MR and MNRA inbred rats with different emotional-stress reaction (ESR) phenotypes was studied in the course of a 7-month voluntary alcoholization. Initially, the MNRA rats with an active ESR phenotype showed a higher level of a 15% aqueous ethanol consumption than did the MR rats. After 3 months, the consumption of ethanol in the highly emotional MR rats sharply increased and was retained on a high level during subsequent alcoholization.

[The pharmacogenetic concept of the anxio-selective effect].

Hereditary variations in the effects of benzodiazepine tranquilizers depending on the phenotype of an emotional stress reaction (ESR) are described. The membrane-receptor relationship showed differences between C57B1/6 with an "active" ESR phenotype and Balb/c with a "passive" ESR at the GABA benzodiazepine receptor complex level. The pharmacological results evidenced the selective anxiolytic properties of the novel drug aphobazole (2-[2-morpholyno)ethylthio]-5-ethoxybenzimidazole dihydrochloride) which produced an activating anxiolytic action in Balb/c mice whereas no behavioral changes were observed in C57B1/6 mice.

[The anxiolytic effect of the new 2-mercaptobenzimidazole derivative in MR and MNRA rats].

The effect of the new drug SM-346, a derivative of 2-mercaptobenzimidazole, on the behavior of inbred MR and MNRA rats, differing in the phenotype of the emotional-stress reaction in the open field test was studies. In the Vogel conflict test SM-346 in a dose of 1 mg/kg produced an anxiolytic effect in MR rats but had no effect on the behavior of MNRA rats. The obtained results allow the conclusion that SM-346 possesses a selective anxiolytic action.

[An experimental evaluation of the behavioral characteristics in the formation of a predilection for alcohol].

A set of correlating indices has been developed to assess alcohol craving in rats who has a free access to it for 24 months. The set includes the estimation of voluntary daily alcohol intake before and after ethanol deprivation and the assessment of rats' behavior in a conflict situation and a plus-maze. The increased intake of alcohol after its deprivation has been established to correlate with a number of punished ethanol lickings in the conflict paradigm and functional locomotor asymmetry in the plus-maze.