Possible Interaction: Cocaine and Corticosterone

“In rodents, corticosterone (cortisol in humans) facilitates cocaine self-administration purportedly via enhancement of dopaminergic activity in the brain.”

“Despite the capacity for cocaine to increase corticosterone and adrenocorticotropic hormone levels in control mice, the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis was suppressed in HIV‐infected animals, and corticosterone levels were further decreased when animals were exposed to HIV and cocaine.”

“Increasing circulating levels of corticosterone also augments sensitivity to low doses of cocaine , possibly from a sensitization-associated phenomenon involving dopamine, suggesting that exposure to stress can increase individual vulnerability to cocaine.”

“ Cocaine stimulates the secretion of corticosterone and ACTH, probably through a CRF-related mechanism, indicating that the drug activates the HPA axis.”

“Taken together, these results suggest that corticosterone interferes with naturally occurring dopamine uptake locally, and this effect is a critical determinant of dopamine concentration specifically in situations in which the dopamine transporter is pharmacologically blocked by cocaine.”

“The administration of cocaine resulted in an increase in corticosterone in the medial prefrontal cortex following vehicle pretreatment, which was not observed in the nucleus accumbens.”

“ Prenatal cocaine enhanced the CORT response to CRH/saline injections up to 60 min in males but not in females.”

“ Corticosterone , the main glucorticoid hormone in rodents, facilitates behavioral responses to cocaine.”

“We have studied the critical time-window for the influence of corticosterone on behavioural sensitisation to cocaine in relation to i) the stage of behavioural sensitisation, and ii) the time of drug exposure.”

“By contrast, cocaine attenuated corticosterone responses in C57BL/6 mice throughout the sensitisation paradigm.”