GIUV2023-550
The growing number of individuals suffering from addictive disorders and the lack of sufficiently effective psychopharmacological therapies has increased interest in determining the factors involved in vulnerability to addiction. The main objective of this research unit is the study of endophenotypes predictive of or related to addiction to different drugs (or new behavioural addictions), especially in adolescent subjects of both sexes. Our studies focus on five main areas: 1. research into personality variables (novelty/sensation seeking, impulsivity, compulsivity, anxiety, etc.); 2. neurocognitive tasks (neuropsychological tests in humans and behavioural tests in rodents); 3. environmental influences (e.g. stress); 4. neurobiological substrates (neural circuits, neurotransmitters, molecular mechanisms, etc.); 5. relationship between endophenotypes related to addictive behaviour and other associated disorders (anxiety, depression, hyperactivity and attention deficit, etc.).Since adolescence is a particularly critical period in the development of addiction (due to the neurobiological and behavioural characteristics of adolescents), studies are mainly conducted in rodents and human...The growing number of individuals suffering from addictive disorders and the lack of sufficiently effective psychopharmacological therapies has increased interest in determining the factors involved in vulnerability to addiction. The main objective of this research unit is the study of endophenotypes predictive of or related to addiction to different drugs (or new behavioural addictions), especially in adolescent subjects of both sexes. Our studies focus on five main areas: 1. research into personality variables (novelty/sensation seeking, impulsivity, compulsivity, anxiety, etc.); 2. neurocognitive tasks (neuropsychological tests in humans and behavioural tests in rodents); 3. environmental influences (e.g. stress); 4. neurobiological substrates (neural circuits, neurotransmitters, molecular mechanisms, etc.); 5. relationship between endophenotypes related to addictive behaviour and other associated disorders (anxiety, depression, hyperactivity and attention deficit, etc.).Since adolescence is a particularly critical period in the development of addiction (due to the neurobiological and behavioural characteristics of adolescents), studies are mainly conducted in rodents and human adolescents or young adults. In addition, differences betwen sexes are studied both in the effects produced by drugs and in vulnerability to developing addiction. We use animal models of addictive behaviours (conditioned place preference, drug self-administration), depression (tail suspension test, forced swimming, sucrose preference, etc.), anxiety (elevated plus maze, open field, black/white box), psychotic symptomatology (prepulse inhibition), behavioural variables (search for novelty or impulsivity in different paradigms, among others), cognitive execution (mazes, object recognition, active and passive avoidance), etc. In humans, we use scales to evaluate personality variables, executive functions, learning and memory, etc. Our most recent studies focus on resilience, understood as a subject's ability to recover after experiencing adverse conditions or to respond with changes that allow a better adaptation. One of our main aims is to know the individual and environmental variables that confer resilience to developing addictive disorders to subjects and the manipulation of these variables in vulnerable subjects to increase their resilience to addiction. To model the effects of stress exposure in mice we use different types of social stress since in humans stress often results from problems with interaction with others. The most commonly used model is social defeat in an agonistic encounter with an aggressive conspecific, which in the case of adolescent mice is a model of bullying, although other types of social stress can also be used. In females, we have developed a model of vicarious social defeat. In general, exposure to social stress increases the reinforcing effects of drugs but we study that behavioural variables (stress coping strategies, novelty seeking, impulsivity, depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, etc.) can make the subject more resilient to the effects of stress on the development of addiction. Likewise, we also aim to study the effect of different manipulations to increase resilience, including exposure to enriched environments, physical activity, inoculation to stress and drug administration.
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- Estudiar los endofenotipos y los factores ambientales relacionados con el desarrollo de la conducta adictiva
- Fomentar estrategias ambientales y farmacologicas para la prevencion y tratamiento de la conducta adictiva
- Estudiar la resiliencia a los efectos del estres social sobre la conducta adictiva en ambos sexos
- Role of several neurotransmitter systems in the behavioral effects of different drugs of abuse.Through the administration of agonist and antagonist drugs in different neurotransmission systems, we have studied the role of these systems in the behavioral effects (reinforcement, motor activity, social interaction, learning and memory, etc.) of different drugs in mice.
- Long-term effects of adolescent drug exposure and poly-drug consumption.We study the long-term effects, mainly behavioural, of the administration of different drugs, either alone or in polyconsumption, which imitates the usual consumption patterns these drugs in adolescence (for example, alcohol or cocaine binging) in mice.
- Influence of individual variables on the vulnerability to the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse.We study the influence of different individual variables, such as age, sex, level of novelty seeking, etc., on vulnerability to the reinforcing effects of cocaine, alcohol, MDMA, cannabis and opiates in adolescent and adult male and female mice.
- Influence of environmental variables on the vulnerability to the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse.We study the negative or protective influence of different environmental variables (such as exposure to social stress, isolation, cohabitation with another animal and enriched environments) on vulnerability to developing an addictive disorder, as well as the underlying mechanisms in mice.
- Neurobehavioral mechanisms of resilience to the negative effects of social stress on drug addiction.We identify behavioural and neurochemical biomarkers of resilience to the negative effects of social defeat on cocaine response and underlying mechanisms (neurotransmitters, neuroinflammation, epigenetics, microbiota, etc.) in male and female mice.
- Potentiation of resilience to the behavioral short and long term effects of social stress.We evaluate the capacity of different environmental and pharmacological manipulations that increase resilience to the effects of social stress, both in the short term (anxiety, depression, etc.) and in the long term (greater sensitivity to cocaine) in male and female mice.
- Resilience to the effects of social stress on addictive disorders in humans.We study the behavioural characteristics of people who are resilient to developing a substance use disorder or other addictive disorder after exposure to stress. This study is carried out mainly through the application of online questionnaires.
| Name | Nature of participation | Entity | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| M ASUNCION AGUILAR CALPE | Director | Universitat de València | |
| Research team | |||
| MARIA DE LOS ANGELES MARTINEZ CABALLERO | Member | Universitat de València | |
| Jose Enrique De La Rubia Orti | Collaborator | Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir | pre-tenured lecturer |
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- DOPAMINA; SEROTONINA; GLUTAMATO; OXIDO NITRICO; ENDOCANNABINOIDES; OPIOIDES ENDÓGENOS; ALCOHOL; COCAINA; MDMA; CANNABIS;
- ALCOHOL; COCAINA; MDMA; CANNABIS; OPIACEOS; POLICONSUMO; ADICCIÓN; VULNERABILIDAD; ADOLESCENCIA; BINGE DRINKING;
- ADOLESCENCIA; DIFERENCIAS SEXUALES; ALCOHOL; COCAINA; MDMA; CANNABIS; OPIACEOS; REFUERZO; ADICCIÓN
- estrés; derrota social repetida; aislamiento; enriquecimiento social; enriquecimiento ambiental; cocaina; alcohol; MDMA; preferencia de lugar
- resiliencia; estrés; derrota social; adicción; cocaína; ansiedad; depresión; diferencias sexuales; dopamina; glutamato; cannabinoides; óxido nítrico
- resiliencia; derrota social; ansiedad; depresión; cocaína; inoculación al estrés; actividad física; ketamina; cannabidiol; memantina; 7-nitroindazole
- estrés; resiliencia; trastornos adictivos; búsqueda de novedad; impulsividad; sensibilidad a la recompensa y al castigo; depresión; ansiedad
