PI3 kinase is involved in cocaine behavioral sensitization and its reversal with brain area specificity.

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) is an important signaling molecule involved in cell differentiation, proliferation, survival, and phagocytosis, and may participate in various brain functions. To determine whether it is also involved in cocaine sensitization, we measured the p85alpha/p110 PI3K activity in the nuclear accumbens (NAc) shell, NAc core, and prefrontal cortex (PFC) following establishment of cocaine sensitization and its subsequent reversal. Naïve rats were rank-ordered and split into either daily cocaine or saline pretreatment group based on their locomotor responses to an acute cocaine injection (7.