Physical Exercise Promotes Beneficial Changes on Neurotrophic Factors in Mesolimbic Brain Areas After AMPH Relapse: Involvement of the Endogenous Opioid System.

Addiction is a serious public health problem, and the current pharmacotherapy is unable to prevent drug use reinstatement. Studies have focused on physical exercise as a promising coadjuvant treatment. Our research group recently showed beneficial neuroadaptations in the dopaminergic system related to amphetamine-relapse prevention involving physical exercise-induced endogenous opioid system activation (EXE-OS activation).

Tactile Stimulation in Adult Rats Modulates Dopaminergic Molecular Parameters in the Nucleus accumbens Preventing Amphetamine Relapse.

Amphetamine (AMPH) is a psychostimulant drug frequently related to addiction, which is characterized by functional and molecular changes in the brain reward system, favoring relapse development, and pharmacotherapies have shown low effectiveness. Considering the beneficial influences of tactile stimulation (TS) in different diseases that affect the central nervous system (CNS), here we evaluated if TS applied in adult rats could prevent or minimize the AMPH-relapse behavior also accessing molecular neuroadaptations in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Following AMPH conditioning in the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm, male rats were submitted to TS (15-min session, 3 times a day, for 8 days) during the drug abstinence period, which were re-exposed to the drug in the CPP paradigm for additional 3 days for relapse observation and molecular assessment.

Apical periodontitis induces changes on oxidative stress parameters and increases Na/K-ATPase activity in adult rats.

Objectives: Endodontic infection can cause systemic alterations. The involvement of oxidative stress (OS) and transmembrane enzymes compose the pathogenesis of various systemic diseases. However, the relation among apical periodontitis (AP), OS parameters, and Na/K-ATPase (NKA) pump was not reported in the literature.

Involvement of the endogenous opioid system in the beneficial influence of physical exercise on amphetamine-induced addiction parameters.

Psychostimulant drugs addiction is a chronic public health problem and individuals remain susceptible to relapses increasing public expenses even after withdrawal and treatment. Our research group has focused on finding new therapies to be employed in drug addiction treatment, suggesting the physical exercise as a promising tool. This way, it is necessary to know the mechanisms involved in the beneficial influences of physical exercise observing the pathway that could be explored in drug addiction treatment.

Binge and Subchronic Exposure to Ketamine Promote Memory Impairments and Damages in the Hippocampus and Peripheral Tissues in Rats: Gallic Acid Protective Effects.

Ketamine (KET) is a dissociative anesthetic for restrict medical use with high potential for abuse and neurotoxicity which does not prevent its recreational use. Gallic acid (GA) is a natural free radical "scavenger." We evaluated the GA protective role regarding binge or subchronic (SbChro) KET-induced toxicity in adolescent rats.

Effect of cerebral palsy and dental caries on dental plaque index, salivary parameters and oxidative stress in children and adolescents.

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of cerebral palsy and dental caries on dental plaque index, salivary parameters and oxidative stress in children and adolescents.

Methods: Seventy children and adolescents aged 2-20 years were divided into four groups: neurotypical controls-inactive caries (NCIC; n = 19); neurotypical controls-active caries (NCAC; n = 16); cerebral palsy-inactive caries (CPIC; n = 19); and cerebral palsy-active caries (CPAC; n = 16). The visible dental plaque index was determined after drying the tooth surfaces and without any mechanical or chemical disclosing methods.

Physical exercise modifies behavioral and molecular parameters related to opioid addiction regardless of training time.

Addiction is a devastating worldwide disorder that requires effective and innovative therapies. Physical exercise could be useful in addiction treatment because it shares a common neural circuit with addictive drugs. Based on this, molecular adaptations consequent to time of exercise in opioid exposed animals were evaluated.

Gallic acid prevents ketamine-induced oxidative damages in brain regions and liver of rats.

Introduction: Ketamine (KET) is an anesthetic agent widely used in human and veterinary medicine. According to studies, KET is associated to direct neutorotoxic damages due to its capacity to induce oxidative stress. Because of the free radical generation in the organism and its relation with diseases' development, there is a growing interest to study antioxidant molecules, such as gallic acid (GA), a natural phenolic compound.

Nanofibrous antibiotic-eluting matrices: Biocompatibility studies in a rat model.

This study evaluated the biocompatibility of degradable polydioxanone (PDS) electrospun drug delivery systems (hereafter referred as matrices) containing metronidazole (MET) or ciprofloxacin (CIP) after subcutaneous implantation in rats. Sixty adult male rats were randomized into six groups: SHAM (sham surgery); PDS (antibiotic-free matrix); 1MET (one 25 wt% MET matrix); 1CIP (one 25 wt% CIP matrix); 2MET (two 25 wt% MET matrices); and 2CIP (two 25 wt% CIP matrices). At 3 and 30 days, animals were assessed for inflammatory cell response (ICR), collagen fibers degradation, and oxidative profile (reactive oxygen species [ROS]; lipid peroxidation [LP]; and protein carbonyl [PC]).

Tactile Stimulation on Adulthood Modifies the HPA Axis, Neurotrophic Factors, and GFAP Signaling Reverting Depression-Like Behavior in Female Rats.

Depression is a common psychiatric disease which pharmacological treatment relieves symptoms, but still far from ideal. Tactile stimulation (TS) has shown beneficial influences in neuropsychiatric disorders, but the mechanism of action is not clear. Here, we evaluated the TS influence when applied on adult female rats previously exposed to a reserpine-induced depression-like animal model.

Modafinil reduces amphetamine preference and prevents anxiety-like symptoms during drug withdrawal in young rats: Involvement of dopaminergic targets in VTA and striatum.

Drug abuse and addiction are overwhelming health problems mainly during adolescence. Based on a previous study of our research group, the rats that received modafinil (MD) during the adolescence showed less preference for amphetamine (AMPH) in adulthood. Our current hypothesis is that MD will show beneficial effects against AMPH preference and abstinence symptoms during adolescence, a critical lifetime period when drug hedonic effects are more pronounced.

Substitution therapy with amphetamine-isotherapic attenuates amphetamine toxicological aspects of addiction.

Introduction: amphetamine (AMPH) is related to development of addiction, anxiety-like behaviors and impairments of memory after chronic use. In the current experiment, an ultra-high dilution (10mg/mL) of AMPH was used, consisting of the AMPH isotherapic (AMPH-ISO), which can be used as a replacement therapy to treat AMPH addiction.

Aim: To verify the influence of AMPH-ISO on toxicological aspects of AMPH addiction.

Influence of physical activity on addiction parameters of rats exposed to amphetamine which were previously supplemented with hydrogenated vegetable fat.

Amphetamine (AMPH) and its derivatives are addictive drugs used to promote and enhance alertness, motivation, willingness, courage and wellbeing. However, their chronic use is related to memory loss, emotional instability, insomnia, psychosis and paranoia. In the last decades, modern society has included processed foods, rich in trans fatty acids (TFA), in their diet, what has been related to several health problems including increased AMPH preference and self-administration.

Could Modafinil Prevent Psychostimulant Addiction? An Experimental Study in Rats.

Addiction is a serious health problem which leads to general social impairment. The period of adolescence plays a significant role in drug abuse liability. Psychostimulants, such as modafinil (MOD), are majorly used by teenagers seeking improvements in cognition, which contributes to its indiscriminate use.

Could hypoxia acclimation cause morphological changes and protect against Mn-induced oxidative injuries in silver catfish (Rhamdia quelen) even after reoxygenation?

Exposure to hypoxia has shown beneficial adjustments in different species, including silver catfish (Rhamdia quelen), especially in situations of aquatic contamination with pollutants such as manganese (Mn). Considering that hypoxia is seasonal in the natural aquatic environment, we decided to assess whether these adaptive mechanisms could be maintained when reoxygenation is established. Silver catfish acclimated to moderate hypoxia (∼3 mg L, 41% O saturation) for 10 days and subsequently exposed to Mn (∼8.

Hypoxia acclimation and subsequent reoxygenation partially prevent Mn-induced damage in silver catfish.

This study investigated if hypoxia acclimation modifies the hematological and oxidative profiles in tissues of Mn-exposed silver catfish (Rhamdia quelen), and if such modifications persist upon subsequent reoxygenation. Silver catfish acclimated to hypoxia (~3mgL) for 10days and subsequently exposed to Mn (~8.1mgL) for additional 10days exhibited lower Mn accumulation in plasma, liver and kidney, even after reoxygenation, as compared to normoxia-acclimated fish.

Stress during the gestational period modifies pups' emotionality parameters and favors preference for morphine in adolescent rats.

Experimental animal studies have shown that early life periods are highly vulnerable to environmental factors, which may exert prolonged impact on HPA axis function and on subsequent neurochemical and behavioral responses in adulthood. Here we evaluated the influence of environmental stressful situations in two different early life stages on stress-related behaviors, and morphine-conditioned place preference (CPP), which is indicative of addiction. While in the gestational stress (Gest-S) dams were exposed to daily sessions of chronic mild stress (CMS) for 2 weeks, in the postnatal stress (post-NS) the offspring were exposed daily to neonatal isolation from postnatal day (PND) 2 to PND 9 for 60 min.