Affiliations: Molecular Neuropsychiatry Section, Intramural Research
Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, 5500
Nathan Shock Drive, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA
Note: [] Corresponding author: Jean Lud Cadet, M.D., Molecular
Neuropsychiatry Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 5500 Nathan Shock
Drive, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. Tel.: +1 410 550 2953: Fax: +1 410 550 2745:
E-Mail: jcadet@intra.nida.nih.gov.
Abstract: Meffimphetamine (METH) is a drug of abuse with well-deseribed
neurodegenerative effects. Some of the METH-induced degenerative manifestations
are thought to be due to increased dopamine (DA) release in the cytoplasm of
nerve terminals and subsequent extravasation in the synaptic cleft. Using an
immortalized neural cell line, we have made use of the comprehensive cDNA array
technology in order to compare and contrast the molecular effects of DA and
METH. We found that the two compounds do have many similar but also different
effects. Since these neural cells produce no DA, these results demonstrate that
many of the METH-induced responses attributed to DA might, in fact, be
intrinsic to METH itself. More biochmical studies are needed to investigate
DA-independent METH deleterious events in the central nervous system.
