Agmatine attenuates the discriminative stimulus and hyperthermic effects of methamphetamine in male rats.

Behav Pharmacol

aDepartment of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, USA bDepartment of Neurosurgery, Binzhou People's Hospital, Binzhou, Shandong Province, China.

Published: September 2016

Methamphetamine abuse remains an alarming public heath challenge, with no approved pharmacotherapies available. Agmatine is a naturally occurring cationic polyamine that has previously been shown to attenuate the rewarding and psychomotor-sensitizing effects of methamphetamine. This study examined the effects of agmatine on the discriminative stimulus and hyperthermic effects of methamphetamine. Adult male rats were trained to discriminate 0.32 mg/kg methamphetamine from saline. Methamphetamine dose dependently increased drug-associated lever responding. The nonselective dopamine receptor antagonist haloperidol (0.1 mg/kg) significantly attenuated the discriminative stimulus effects of methamphetamine (5.9-fold rightward shift). Agmatine (10-100 mg/kg) did not substitute for methamphetamine, but significantly attenuated the stimulus effects of methamphetamine, leading to a maximum of a 3.5-fold rightward shift. Acute 10 mg/kg methamphetamine increased the rectal temperature by a maximum of 1.96±0.17°C. Agmatine (10-32 mg/kg) pretreatment significantly attenuated the hyperthermic effect of methamphetamine. Agmatine (10 mg/kg) also significantly reversed methamphetamine-induced temperature increase. Together, these results support further exploration of the value that agmatine may have for the treatment of methamphetamine abuse and overdose.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4965281PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/FBP.0000000000000244DOI Listing

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