Forced swim stress-escalated alcohol drinking and BNST kappa opioid receptors

The neuropeptide dynorphin (DYN) acting on kappa opioid receptors (KORs) has been recently studied for treating alcohol abuse and stress disorders. The current experiments explored the role of central DYN and KORs after forced swim stress in adult mice given intermittent access to alcohol. After 8 weeks of heavy drinking, repeated swim stress generated a latent increase in voluntary alcohol consumption without affecting H2O intake. The KOR antagonist nor-binaltrophimine significantly suppressed the high-level alcohol drinking in both stressed and non-stressed mice, with greater reductions in the stressed animals.

Source: Alcohol - May 1, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Lara S. Hwa, Tom Kash Source Type: research