Behavioral sensitization to beta-phenylethylamine (PEA): enduring modifications of specific dopaminergic neuron systems in the rat

Repeated daily administration of an endogenous trace amine, beta-phenylethylamine (PEA), produces behavioral sensitization such that the intensity of PEA-induced stereotyped behaviors in rats increases gradually during the treatment, and a challenge injection with PEA reinstates the enhanced stereotypy even long after withdrawal. In the present study, we examined the neurochemical changes in the central dopaminergic neuron systems in the rat for 7 drug-free days after repeated treatment with PEA (50 mg/kg, IP day for 14 or 28 days). During withdrawal, a decrease in steady-state levels of tissue dopamine (DA) and its metabolite, dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC), was found in the mesolimbic DA nerve terminal areas of the rat brain receiving repeated PEA treatment. Fifteen minutes after challenge administration of PEA at varying doses from 6.3 to 75 mg/kg, the rats with repeated PEA treatment required smaller doses of PEA challenge than the rats with acute PEA treatment in order to obtain a significant decrease in striatal DOPAC content compared to the saline control in each treatment group. These results imply that the behavioral sensitization to PEA is accompanied by enduring modifications of the specific dopaminergic neuron systems in the rat brain. This suggestion was strongly supported by the results of the study using in vivo intracerebral dialysis, which indicated that 25 mg/kg PEA challenge elicited a remarkable increase in the extracellular DA concentrations in striatal perfusates collected from the PEA-pretreated rats, in accordance with the intensity of stereotyped behaviors. These findings argue that the hyper-responsiveness to PEA of the striatal dopaminergic neuron systems persists long after withdrawal from repeated treatment with PEA.