Simvastatin Blocks Reinstatement of Cocaine-induced Conditioned Place Preference in Male Mice with Brain Lipidome Remodeling
Wei Xu1,2,3 • Yuman He1 • Jiamei Zhang1 • Hongchun Li1 • Xuemei Wan1 • Menglu Li1 • Yonghai Wang4 • Rui Xu1 • Haoluo Zhang1 • Yanping Dai1 • Haxiaoyu Liu4 • Linhong Jiang1 • Ying Zhao1 • Xiaobo Cen1
1 National Chengdu Center for Safety Evaluation of Drugs, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Collaborative Innovation Center for Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
2 Sichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chengdu 610041, China
3 Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Drug Addiction, the Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen Fundamental Research Institutions, Shenzhen 518055, China
4 School of Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology and Drug Evaluation (Yantai University), Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Drug Delivery System and Biotech Drugs in Universities of Shandong, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China
Abstract
Drug-associated reward memories are conducive to intense craving and often trigger relapse. Simvastatin has been shown to regulate lipids that are involved in memory formation but its influence on other cognitive processes is elusive. Here, we used a mass spectrometry-based lipidomic method to evaluate the impact of simvastatin on the mouse brain in a cocaine-induced reinstatement paradigm. We found that simvastatin blocked the reinstatement of cocaine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) without affecting CPP acquisition. Specifically, only simvastatin administered during extinction prevented cocaine-primed reinstatement. Global lipidome analysis showed that the nucleus accumbens was the region with the greatest degree of change caused by simvastatin. The metabolism of fatty-acids, phospholipids, and triacylglycerol was profoundly affected. Simvastatin reversed most of the effects on phospholipids induced by cocaine. The correlation matrix showed that cocaine and simvastatin significantly reshaped the lipid metabolic pathways in specific brain regions. Furthermore, simvastatin almost reversed all changes in the fatty acyl profile and unsaturation caused by cocaine. In summary, pre-extinction treatment with simvastatin facilitates cocaine extinction and prevents cocaine relapse with brain lipidome remodeling.
Keywords
Simvastatin; Cocaine relapse; Extinction;Lipidome; Conditioned place preference
