Repeated phencyclidine disrupts nicotinic acetylcholine regulation of dopamine release in nucleus accumbens: Implications for models of schizophrenia.

Dopaminergic dysregulation in nucleus accumbens has been implicated in the origin of schizophrenia. Accumbal cholinergic interneurons exert powerful modulatory control of local dopamine function, through nicotinic receptors located on dopamine terminals. Fast-scan cyclic voltammetry in rat brain slices in vitro was used to measure dopamine release evoked by high-frequency electrical stimulation, mimicking phasic dopamine activity. We investigated whether cholinergic regulation of stimulated dopamine release was disrupted by pretreatment with phencyclidine, a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, which provides a well validated animal model of schizophrenia. Dihydro-β-erythroidine, an antagonist at β2-subuit containing nicotinic receptors, caused a concentration-dependent enhancement of stimulated dopamine release, indicating cholinergic inhibitory control over dopamine release. The agonist, nicotine, also caused concentration-dependent increases in release, consistent with rapid desensitisation of the receptors previously described. In slices taken from animals pretreated with phencyclidine, the augmentation of electrically-stimulated dopamine release elicited by both drugs was attenuated, particularly when each drug was applied at high concentration. In addition, the concentration-dependence of each drug effect was lost. Taken together these findings indicate that pretreatment with phencyclidine causes changes in acetylcholine systems modulating dopamine release in accumbens. Since phencyclidine treatment was terminated at least a week before the slices were taken, the effects are due to long-term changes in function resulting from the treatment, rather than from transient changes due to the presence of the drug at test. Such enduring dysregulation of cholinergic control of phasic dopamine release could account for deficits in behaviours mediated by accumbal dopamine seen in schizophrenia, and may provide a route for novel therapeutic strategies to treat the disease.

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