Specificity Acamprosate on Ethanol Intake Using Drinking-in-the-Dark in C57BL/6J Mice
Acamprosate (calcium-acetyl homotaurinate) was recently approved for treatment of alcoholism in the United States. Previous studies demonstrate that acamprosate can reduce voluntary ethanol drinking in some rats, mice, and humans, but the specificity of the drug for reducing ethanol drinking as compared to intake of alternative fluids has not been clearly established. The present study uses a recently developed model of excessive ethanol intake in mice called drinking in the dark (DID) to determine the specificity of acamprosate in reducing ethanol intake as compared to intake of plain tap water. The purpose was to provide information about the selectivity of acamprosate on ethanol consumption for future exploration of better treatments against alcoholism using the new DID procedure. Consumption of plain tap water was monitored every 15 minutes for 2 hours following intraperitoneal injections of three different doses of acamprosate in male mice from the genetically predisposed high drinking inbred strain, C57BL/6J. We found that acamprosate does not reduce plain water consumption when administered at doses less than 400 mg/kg. We conclude that the DID procedure may be useful to screen potential new medications based on the mechanism of action of acamprosate.
School:
University of Puerto Rico at Humacao
Department:
Microbiology
Research Advisor:
Justin S. Rhodes
Department of Research Advisor:
Psychology
Year of Publication:
2007