Rao, Kalyan N.Sentir, Alena M.Engleman, Eric A.Bell, Richard L.Hulvershorn, Leslie A.Breier, AlanChambers, R. Andrew2017-07-172017-07-172016-12Rao, K. N., Sentir, A. M., Engleman, E. A., Bell, R. L., Hulvershorn, L. A., Breier, A., & Chambers, R. A. (2016). Toward early estimation and treatment of addiction vulnerability: radial arm maze and N-acetyl cysteine before cocaine sensitization or nicotine self-administration in neonatal ventral hippocampal lesion rats. Psychopharmacology, 233(23), 3933–3945. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-016-4421-81432-2072https://hdl.handle.net/1805/13490RATIONAL: Prefrontal cortical (PFC)-hippocampal-striatal circuits, interconnected via glutamatergic signaling, are dysfunctional in mental illnesses that involve addiction vulnerability. OBJECTIVES: In healthy and neurodevelopmentally altered rats, we examined how Radial Arm Maze (RAM) performance estimates addiction vulnerability, and how starting a glutamatergic modulating agent, N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) in adolescence alters adult mental illness and/or addiction phenotypes. METHODS: Rats with neonatal ventral hippocampal lesions (NVHL) vs. SHAM-operated controls were randomized to NAC vs. saline in adolescence followed by cognitive testing (RAM) in early adulthood and then cocaine behavioral sensitization (experiment 1; n = 80) or nicotine self-administration (experiment 2; n = 12). RESULTS: In experiment 1, NVHL rats showed over-consumption of food (Froot-Loops (FL)) baiting the RAM with poor working memory (low-arm entries to repeat (ETR)), producing an elevated FL to ETR ratio ("FLETR"; p < 0.001). FLETR was the best linear estimator (compared to FL or ETR) of magnitude of long-term cocaine sensitization (R (2) = 0.14, p < 0.001). NAC treatment did not alter FL, ETR, FLETR, or cocaine sensitization. In experiment 2, FLETR also significantly and uniquely correlated with subsequent drug seeking during nicotine-induced reinstatement after extinction of nicotine self-administration (R (2) = 0.47, p < 0.01). NAC did not alter RAM performance, but significantly reversed NVHL-induced increases in nicotine seeking during extinction and reinstatement. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate the utility of animal models of mental illness with addiction vulnerability for developing novel diagnostic measures of PFC-hippocampal-striatal circuit dysfunction that may reflect addiction risk. Such tests may direct pharmacological treatments prior to adulthood and addictive drug exposure, to prevent or treat adult addictions.en-USAttribution 3.0 United StatesAdolescenceBehavioral sensitizationCocaineDual diagnosisN-acetyl cysteineNeurodevelopmentRadial arm mazeSchizophreniaArticle