Inhibition of vesicular glutamate transporters contributes to attenuate methamphetamine-induced conditioned place preference in rats

• Methamphetamine induces conditioned place preference in rats.
• CSB6B attenuated methamphetamine-induced conditioned place preference.
• VGLUTs were involved in methamphetamine addiction.

Accumulating evidence suggests that glutamatergic system plays a crucial role in methamphetamine (METH) addiction. In the glutamatergic transmission, vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUTs) are responsible for transporting glutamate into synaptic vesicles and affect the glutamate concentrations in the synaptic cleft. It is well documented that VGLUTs play an essential role in pathophysiology of several psychiatric and neurological diseases, however, whether VGLUTs also have a role in addiction caused by psychostimulant drugs is still unknown. The present study was underwent to investigate the effect of inhibition of VGLUTs on METH-induced induce conditioned place preference in rats. Rats were induced to conditioned place preference with METH (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mg/kg) by intraperitoneal injection. Intracerebroventricular administration of 1.0 or 5.0 μg Chicago sky blue 6B (CSB6B), a VGLUTs inhibitor, and 2.5 h prior to METH was to observe its effect on METH-induced conditioned place preference in rats. The rats receiving METH showed stronger place preference at the dose of 1.0 mg/kg than that of other doses. The intracerebroventricular administration of CSB6B (1.0, 5.0 μg) 2.5 h prior to the exposure to METH attenuated the acquisition of METH-induced conditioned place preference, while CSB6B itself had no effect on place preference. These results indicate that VGLUTs are involved in the effect of METH-induced conditioned place preference and may be a new target against METH addiction.