Abecarnil enhances recovery from diazepam tolerance.

Treatment with diazepam (25 mg/kg; p.o., twice-daily for 17 days) induced tolerance to the anticonvulsant effect of diazepam against bicuculline-induced convulsions in mice. Cross-tolerance was observed to the anticonvulsant action of clonazepam, imidazenil but not abecarnil. While substitution of clonazepam (12 mg/kg; p.o., twice-daily for 15 days) for diazepam did not affect tolerance to diazepam, substitution of imidazenil (17 mg/kg; p.o., twice-daily for 15 days) for diazepam significantly increased sensitivity to the anticonvulsant effect of diazepam, although tolerance was not abolished. Tolerance to diazepam progressively decreased either after suspension of diazepam administration or replacement treatment with abecarnil (20 mg/kg; p.o., twice-daily). Complete recovery of diazepam efficacy was detected after 8 and 15 days of administration of abecarnil and vehicle, respectively. Binding experiments using [3H]-flumazenil showed that Kd values did not differ among treatment groups. A significant decrease in Bmax (-42%) was observed in the cortex of diazepam-tolerant mice whether or not also treated with imidazenil and clonazepam. Conversely, chronically diazepam-treated mice, that further received abecarnil for either 8 or 15 days or vehicle for 15 days showed Bmax values similar to those of vehicle-treated mice never exposed to diazepam. Results suggest that repeated abecarnil administration to diazepam-tolerant mice can facilitate re-adaptation of receptors to the diazepam-free state. It is proposed that replacement therapy with abecarnil after long-term treatment with conventional benzodiazepines (BDZs) may provide a novel approach for reducing tolerance to their anticonvulsant effects.

A new place conditioning paradigm to study tolerance to opiates in mice.

Tolerance to the rewarding properties of morphine was investigated in mice using a new conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure. Four pairings of morphine with specific environmental cues induced a significant CPP for the drug-paired cues. Further opiate conditioning trials in the presence of the same environmental cues revealed no change in the drug-induced CPP on repeated test sessions. Subsequent exposure of the same animals to conditioning trials by pairing morphine with a set of novel environmental cues showed that the opiate was still able to produce a CPP in mice treated with a total of 16 morphine injections. The present CPP paradigm may prove useful to investigate tolerance to the rewarding properties of drugs of abuse.

Conditioned place preference: no tolerance to the rewarding properties of morphine.

The effect of repeated morphine administration on conditioned place preference (CPP) using a novel treatment schedule, i.e., drug treatment was always contingent with the conditioned environmental stimuli, was investigated. We also examined whether changes in the mu- and kappa-opioid receptor binding occurred in the brain of morphine-treated animals. Intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of morphine (2 and 10 mg/kg) induced a place preference after 8 daily conditioning trials (4 morphine injections on alternate trials), the level of preference being the same with the two doses of the opiate. No change in place preference was observed in the morphine-treated rats at 2 mg/kg, when animals were further trained up to a total of 32 conditioning trials (16 morphine injections). Conversely, after 20 conditioning trials (10 morphine injections), a stronger CPP response developed in the morphine-treated rats at 10 mg/kg. Signs of morphine withdrawal were never detected in morphine-treated rats during the experiment. Loss of body weight (index of opiate dependence) was not observed either 24 h or 48 h after the last morphine administration. mu- and kappa-opioid receptor density and affinity were not affected by repeated morphine administrations at either dose. The results demonstrate that no tolerance develops to the rewarding properties of morphine. Indeed, a sensitisation effect may occur at increasing doses of the opiate. Furthermore, changes in the rewarding effect of morphine are not dependent upon alterations in opioid receptors involved in the reinforcing mechanisms.

Abecarnil, a beta-carboline derivative, does not exhibit anticonvulsant tolerance or withdrawal effects in mice.

Development of tolerance and dependence has been reported to occur upon chronic administration of traditional benzodiazepines (BZDs). We compared the effect of chronic treatment with abecarnil, a beta-carboline derivative with high affinity for central BDZ receptors, and diazepam, the BDZ prototype, in mice. After acute administration, abecarnil was as potent and effective as diazepam in protecting from bicuculline-induced convulsion. The time-course analysis of two peak equieffective doses of abecarnil (1.9 mg/kg p.o.) and diazepam (2.7 mg/kg p.o.) showed a similar duration of action. The anticonvulsant potency of diazepam was reduced in mice given chronic diazepam (25 mg/kg p.o., 2 times a day for 17 days). No tolerance to abecarnil was apparent when the drug was administered for the same period using a comparable dose (20 mg/kg p.o.). Severe symptoms of precipitated withdrawal were observed upon administration of the BDZ partial inverse agonist Ro 15-3505 in mice treated chronically with diazepam but not abecarnil. In mice made tolerant to diazepam, maximum [3H]-flumazenil binding sites were reduced in both cerebral cortex (-50%) and cerebellum (-55.2%). No changes in [3H]-flumazenil binding were measured in chronic abecarnil-treated mice. These data indicate that abecarnil possesses a very low tolerance/dependence liability and does not affect BZD receptor density after chronic administration.