Cocaine produces conditioned place aversion in mice with a cocaine-insensitive dopamine transporter.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Animal experiment without human clinical data
PubMed 23083326 · doi:10.1111/j.1601-183X.2012.00872.x
What was done
Researchers evaluated cocaine-induced conditioned place preference and conditioned place aversion in mice with a cocaine-insensitive dopamine transporter (DAT-CI mice). They compared behavioral responses to cocaine across two different genetic backgrounds: DAT-CI mice backcrossed to a C57Bl/6J background and DAT-CI mice maintained on a mixed 129S1/SvImJ × C57Bl/6J (129B6) background.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values or statistical metrics. Qualitatively, DAT-CI mice on the C57Bl/6J background exhibited neither place preference nor aversion to cocaine, whereas DAT-CI mice on the mixed 129B6 background demonstrated robust conditioned place aversion.
Why it matters
This indicates that non-dopaminergic targets mediate aversive properties of cocaine unmasked in the absence of DAT-mediated reward, and that this aversive phenotype depends on host genetic background.
Limits
The abstract provides no sample sizes, dosages, or quantitative effect sizes. The study is restricted to an animal model and cannot be directly generalized to human physiology.
Cited by
- supports Cocaine functions predominantly through dopamine-related neurological pathways.