Role of orexin-1 and orexin-2 receptors in the CA1 region of hippocampus in the forced swim stress- and food deprivation-induced reinstatement of morphine seeking behaviors in rats

Hippocampus (HIP) is an essential brain site to study reward-related learning tasks, such as conditioning place preference (CPP) that can measure the preference for environmental stimuli related to reward. Furthermore, orexin neurons, situated exclusively in the lateral hypothalamus (LH) and link the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse in the LH and the CA1 region of the HIP. Therefore, in this study adult male rats were conditioned with morphine using a CPP paradigm. After the eighth day of the extinction period, on the reinstatement day, orexin-1 and orexin-2 receptor antagonists were administered bilaterally into the CA1 region prior to acute stress. Using two different types of acute stress, forced swim stress (FSS) and food deprivation (FD), the role of orexin-1 and orexin-2 receptors in the CA1 brain region in FSS and FD induced reinstatement was investigated. Our results showed that application of the orexin-1 and orexin-2 antagonists, SB334867 and TCSOX2 29, respectively, reduced the CPP scores in the reinstatement phase. Moreover, it can be concluded that orexin neurons are activated in acute stress states, such as FSS and FD, as blocking the orexin receptors, decreased the effects of acute stress in triggering the reinstatement of morphine-CPP.