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Drugs of Abuse Induce Apoptotic Features in PC12 Cells
Author(s) -
OLIVEIRA M T.,
REGO A C.,
MACEDO TR A.,
OLIVEIRA C R.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1299.121
Subject(s) - staurosporine , apoptosis , dopamine , pharmacology , dopaminergic , cytochrome c , neurodegeneration , amphetamine , chemistry , caspase , programmed cell death , neurotoxin , drugs of abuse , mitochondrion , microbiology and biotechnology , neuroscience , biology , medicine , drug , biochemistry , signal transduction , protein kinase c , disease
A bstract : Drugs of abuse induce the release of dopamine in the central nervous system, particularly in the mesolimbic‐mesocortical pathway. As dopamine may act as a neurotoxin, in this study, we analyzed the effects of the drugs of abuse, cocaine, heroin, and amphetamine, on the neurodegeneration of PC12 cells, a dopaminergic cell line, by evaluating the activity of caspase‐3 and mitochondrial cytochrome c release. All the drugs were shown to induce caspase‐3 activation, similarly to staurosporine, a classical inducer of apoptotic cell death. Furthermore, like staurosporine, the drugs of abuse induced a decrease in mitochondrial cytochrome c content, suggesting the involvement of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway.