Possible Interaction: Acetylcholine and Cocaine

“In addition to cellular injury mediated by inflammatory responses, cocaine also directly affects the brain reward system by disrupting the homeostasis of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and acetylcholine and works synergistically with viral proteins such as tat and gp120 to promote neuronal injury.”

“ Cocaine , a known Ca antagonist, decreased the rate of spontaneous release of ACh as well as nicotine-induced release of ACh.”

“ Cocaine decreased the rate of release of ACh even in the presence of Ca2+ or nicotine.”

“ Cocaine in doses of 280 and 56o micrometer decreased the spontaneous release of ACh to 23, and 17 pmol/g/min, respectively.”

“ Cocaine in small doses increased the response of denervated muscles stimulated by acetylcholine.”

“ Cocaine significantly reduced endothelium-dependent relaxations induced by acetylcholine , or substance P. By contrast A23187 endothelium-mediated relaxation as well as endothelium-independent relaxation by sodium nitroprusside were unaffected by cocaine.”

“This investigation demonstrates that acetylcholine in the NAc plays a key role in both acute and chronic actions of cocaine.”

“Our first studies using microdialysis found that cocaine self-administration increased ACh levels in the NAc to a greater extent than response-independent (i.e., yoked) cocaine.3 These findings suggested that the context of drug experience may influence the neurochemical response to cocaine.”

“In adult rats, cocaine and nomifensine inhibited ACh overflow in a dose-dependent manner.”

“The results reported here demonstrate that cortical ACh release is greatly increased by cocaine in intact rats; ADX prolongs the return to basal levels of cortical ACh, and the chronic replacement of circadian levels of corticosterone normalizes this effect.”

“The concentration-response relationships for ACh and ISO were shifted to the right by cocaine (1-3 mM) when applied serosally.”