Effects of Kappa opioid agonists on cocaine- and food-maintained responding by rhesus monkeys

Abstract

There is accumulating evidence that kappa opioid agonists attenuate cocaine's behavioral effects, and we recently reported that the kappa opioid agonists ethylketocyclazocine (EKC) and U50,488 decreased cocaine self- administration by rhesus monkeys. In the present study, we first examined the effects of acute intramuscular administration of six kappa opioid agonists on responding maintained by food under an FR30 schedule. Each kappa agonist produced dose-dependent decreases in schedule controlled behavior, and the relative potencies were enadoline ≥ bremazocine > Mr2033 ≥ cyclazocine = spiradoline > PD117302. We then studied the effects of chronic administration of these kappa agonists in monkeys responding under a second order schedule of food delivery and cocaine self-administration. The effects of 10 days of intravenous treatment with three arylacetamides [enadoline (0.00032-0.0032 mg/kg/hr), (-) spiradoline (0.0032-0.018 mg/kg/hr), PD117302 (0.032-0.32 mg/kg/hr)] and three benzomorphans [bremazocine (0.00032-0.0032 mg/kg/hr), Mr2033 (0.0032-0.032 mg/kg/hr), cyclazocine (0.001-0.10 mg/kg/hr)] were compared with saline treatment. Enadoline (0.001 and 0.0032 mg/kg/hr), bremazocine (0.0032 mg/kg/hr) and Mr2033 (0.01 and 0.0032 mg/kg/hr) significantly decreased cocaine self-administration (0.01 mg/kg/injection) (P