Abstract
Abuse of psychostimulants such as cocaine and amphetamines has a tremendous social and economic impact. Although replacement therapies are offered for addiction to opioids, nicotine, and alcohol, there is no approved replacement treatment for psychostimulant addiction. Recent studies on an emerging group of benztropine- and rimcazole-based compounds provide hope that replacement therapies for cocaine and amphetamine addiction may come in the near future. A new study (p. 813) now investigates the molecular interaction of the benztropine and rimcazole compounds with their target, the dopamine transporter, and provides an intriguing explanation as to why use of these compounds, unlike cocaine, do not lead to locomotor stimulation and drug discrimination behaviors in animal models.
Footnotes
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L.K.H. was funded by a the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) Young Investigator Award and an National Institutes of Health National Institute on Drug Abuse award K01-DA022378. R.D.B. was funded by National Institutes of Health National Institute on Drug Abuse grant DA07390.
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Please see the related article on page 813.
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ABBREVIATIONS: DA, dopamine; DAT, dopamine transporter; BZT, benztropine; MTS, methanethiosulfonate; NET, norepinephrine transporter.
- Received December 21, 2007.
- Accepted December 21, 2007.
- The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
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