Pretreatment or Posttreatment with Aripiprazole Attenuates Methamphetamine-induced Stereotyped Behavior in Mice

• Main Authors: Nobue Kitanaka, Junichi Kitanaka, F. Scott Hall, Masaru Kayama, Hironobu Sugimori, George R. Uhl, Motohiko Takemura
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2015-01-01
• Series: Journal of Experimental Neuroscience
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.4137/JEN.S27733

Aripiprazole is a third-generation atypical antipsychotic and a dopamine D 2 receptor partial agonist. In the present study, we investigated whether a single administration of aripiprazole to mice, either as a pretreatment or as a posttreatment, would affect stereotypy induced by methamphetamine (METH). Pretreatment of male ICR mice with aripiprazole (1 or 10 mg/kg, i.p.) attenuated the incidence of METH-induced stereotypical behavior in a dose-dependent manner. Pretreatment of mice with 1 mg/kg aripiprazole produced an increase in the locomotor activity in mice treated with METH compared with mice treated with vehicle plus METH and with 10 mg/kg aripiprazole plus METH. This increase in locomotion is indicative of a rightward shift in the dose-response curve for METH, consistent with a shift in the type of stereotypical behavior observed from biting to sniffing. Aripiprazole posttreatment, after METH-induced stereotypical behavior, was fully expressed and also significantly attenuated overall stereotypy in an aripiprazole dose-dependent manner. These data suggest that the antagonism of METH effects by aripiprazole should be investigated as a potential treatment for acute METH overdose.