Abstract
Rationale and objectives
Novel synthetic cannabinoid compounds continue to appear in the market advertised as legal alternatives to marijuana and the older synthetic cannabinoid compounds which are now controlled substances. Most of these newer compounds have been found to act at CB1 receptors, so the purpose of this study was to study the abuse liability of these compounds.
Methods
Five of these compounds (BB-22, FUB-PB-22, 5F-AMB, NM2201, and MAB-CHMINACA) were tested for their ability to produce discriminative stimulus effects similar to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) in rats. The ability of the CB1 receptor inverse agonist rimonabant to antagonize the discriminative stimulus effects of the five test compounds was also tested.
Results
All five of the test compounds fully substituted for the discriminative stimulus effects of Δ9-THC at some dose, although MAB-CHMINACA produced an inverted U-shaped dose effect. Rimonabant fully antagonized the Δ9-THC-like discriminative stimulus effects of BB-22, 5F-AMB, NM2201, and MAB-CHMINACA but only reduced the effects of FUB-PB-22 to 40–50 % of Δ9-THC-appropriate responding.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that all five of the test compounds produced Δ9-THC-like effects and will likely have abuse liability similar to that of the controlled cannabinoid compounds.
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Acknowledgements
The Addiction Treatment Discovery Program staff was involved in the selection of compounds and test parameters. The ATDP had no further role in the study design; the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; or the writing of the report. They have granted permission for the submission of this data for publication.
Funding
Funding was provided by the Addiction Treatment Discovery Program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse for the behavioral data (NIH N01DA-13-8908).
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All housing and procedures were in accordance with Guidelines for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (National Research Council 2011) and were approved by the University of North Texas Health Science Center Animal Care and Use Committee.
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Gatch, M.B., Forster, M.J. Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol-like discriminative stimulus effects of five novel synthetic cannabinoids in rats. Psychopharmacology 235, 673–680 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4783-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4783-6