Alpha adrenergic modulation on effects of norepinephrine transporter inhibitor reboxetine in five-choice serial reaction time task

Yia-Ping Liu,Yu-Lung Lin,Che-Se Tung,Shang-Tang Chang,Chia-Hsin Chuang,Yu-Cheng Kao

doi:10.1186/1423-0127-16-72

Abstract

The study examined the effects of a norepinephrine transporter (NET) inhibitor reboxetine (RBX) on an attentional performance test. Adult SD rats trained with five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) were administered with RBX (0, 3.0 and 10 mg/kg) in the testing day. Alpha-1 adrenergic receptor antagonist PRA and alpha-2 adrenergic receptor antagonist RX821002 were used to clarify the RBX effect. Results revealed that rat received RBX at 10 mg/kg had an increase in the percentage of the correct response and decreases in the numbers of premature response. Alpha-1 adrenergic receptor antagonist Prazosin (PRA) at 0.1 mg/kg reversed the RBX augmented correct responding rate. However, alpha-2 adrenergic receptor antagonist RX821002 at 0.05 and 0.1 mg/kg dose dependently reversed the RBX reduced impulsive responding. Our results suggested that RBX as a norepinephrine transporter inhibitor can be beneficial in both attentional accuracy and response control and alpha-1 and alpha-2 adrenergic receptors might be involved differently.

Highlights

The action of norepinephrine (NE) can be terminated by enzymes that destroy NE and by a transport pump for NE, i.e., removing it from the synapse without destroying it
In terms many issues of the selectivity and mechanisms of action remained unresolved, selective norepinephrine transporter (NET) inhibitor has been developed to treat a variety of brain-related disorders, including depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and cocaine dependence [1,2,3,4]
Further analyses by Dunnett's test revealed that the difference was mainly contributed from the condition between vehicle and 10 mg/kg RBX

Summary

Introduction

The action of norepinephrine (NE) can be terminated by enzymes that destroy NE and by a transport pump for NE, i.e., removing it from the synapse without destroying it. The transport pump that terminates the synaptic action of NE is called NE "transporter" or abbreviated as NET. NET locates in the pre-synaptic terminal and acts to remove NE out of the synaptic cleft stops its action [1]. There is relatively lack of study examining the effect of RBX on the aspect of response control and attentional function. The latter is worth to address given

Methods

Results

Conclusion