• Yannick Fotio, Roberto Ciccocioppo, and Daniele Piomelli.
• Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California, 837 Health Sciences Rd. Room 3101, 3216, Irvine, CA, 92697-4625, USA.
• Psychopharmacology (Berl.). 2021 Jan 1; 238 (1): 249-258.

RationaleN-acylethanolamine acid amidase (NAAA) is an intracellular cysteine hydrolase that terminates the biological actions of oleoylethanolamide (OEA) and palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), two endogenous lipid-derived agonists of the nuclear receptor, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α. OEA and PEA are important regulators of energy balance, pain, and inflammation, but recent evidence suggests that they might also contribute to the control of reward-related behaviors.Objectives And MethodsIn the present study, we investigated the effects of systemic and intracerebral NAAA inhibition in the two-bottle choice model of voluntary alcohol drinking and on operant alcohol self-administration.ResultsIntraperitoneal injections of the systemically active NAAA inhibitor ARN19702 (3 and 10 mg/kg) lowered voluntary alcohol intake in a dose-dependent manner, achieving ≈ 47% reduction at the 10 mg/kg dose (p < 0.001). Water, food, or saccharin consumption was not affected by the inhibitor. Similarly, ARN19702 dose-dependently attenuated alcohol self-administration under both fixed ratio 1 (FR-1) and progressive ratio schedules of reinforcement. Furthermore, microinjection of ARN19702 (1, 3 and 10 μg/μl) or of two chemically different NAAA inhibitors, ARN077 and ARN726 (both at 3 and 10 μg/μl), into the midbrain ventral tegmental area produced dose-dependent decreases in alcohol self-administration under FR-1 schedule. Microinjection of ARN19702 into the nucleus accumbens had no such effect.ConclusionCollectively, the results point to NAAA as a possible molecular target for the treatment of alcohol use disorder.

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