Chicago sky blue 6B, a vesicular glutamate transporters inhibitor, attenuates methamphetamine-induced hyperactivity and behavioral sensitization in mice

Several lines of evidence demonstrate that glutamatergic system plays an important role in drug addiction. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of Chicago sky blue 6B (CSB6B), a vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUTs) inhibitor, on methamphetamine (METH)-induced behaviors in mice. Mice were induced behavioral sensitization to METH by subcutaneous injection of 1mg/kg METH once daily for 7 days and then challenged with 1mg/kg METH in 14th day. Intracerebroventricular administration of CSB6B (7.5μg) 2.5h prior to METH was to observe its effects on METH -induced behavioral sensitization. Our results showed that the expressions of behavioral sensitization were significantly attenuated by intracerebroventricular administration of CSB6B 2.5h prior to METH either during the development period or before methamphetamine challenge in mice, while CSB6B itself had no effect on locomotor activity. Meanwhile, pretreatment of CSB6B also attenuated hyperactivity caused by a single injection of METH in mice. These results demonstrated that CSB6B, a VGLUTs inhibitor, attenuated acute METH-induced hyperactivity and chronic METH-induced behavioral sensitization, which indicated that VGLUTs were involved in the effect of chronic METH-induced behavioral sensitization and may be a new target against the addiction of METH.