Letter to neuroscienceThe CRF1 receptor antagonist antalarmin reduces volitional ethanol consumption in isolation-reared fawn-hooded rats
Section snippets
Experimental procedures
All experiments were performed in accordance with the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986 under the guidelines of the National Health and Medical Research Council Code of Practise for the Care and Use of Animals for Experimental Purposes in Australia (NHMRC, 1997). All attempts were made to minimise the number of animals used and their suffering.
All rats were individually housed upon weaning (3 weeks of age) in the Department of Pharmacology, Monash University animal house, and kept at
Results
Antalarmin induced a significant anxiolytic phenotype comparable to that of diazepam as determined by an increased time spent on the open arms of the elevated plus-maze (Fig. 1a), whilst having no sedative or locomotive effects as determined by no change in total arm entries (Fig. 1b). In addition, acute pre-treatment (3 days) with either antalarmin or diazepam reduced the acquisition of voluntary ethanol consumption (defined as ethanol intake over 2.5 g/kg/day) when compared with
Discussion
Here we demonstrate for the first time that whilst both diazepam and antalarmin were beneficial in decreasing the acquisition of an ethanol-preferring phenotype in isolation-reared FH rats, only antalarmin was able to affect established, volitional ethanol consumption. This effect is specific to antalarmin and not generalised to all anxiolytics since chronic diazepam treatment had no effect on established ethanol-seeking behaviour. Previous reports have demonstrated that CRF agonists display
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge discussions with Professor Bill Blessing, Dr. B. J. Canny and thank Dr. G. P. Chrousos for the generous gift of antalarmin.
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