Memantine reduces consumption of highly palatable food in a rat model of binge eating

Excessive consumption of highly palatable food has been linked to the development of eating disorders and obesity, and can be modeled in non-food-deprived rats by offering them a limited (2-h daily) access to an optional dietary fat. Since the glutamatergic system has recently emerged as a viable target for binge-eating medication development, we compared the effects of subchronic treatment with glutamatergic receptor antagonists to the effects of a reference appetite-suppressing agent sibutramine on highly palatable food (lard) and normal chow intake. In three separate experiments, the consumption of a standard laboratory chow and lard were measured during 12 days of medication treatment and for 6 days afterwards. Generalized estimating equations analysis demonstrated that sibutramine (7.5 mg/kg, PO) significantly decreased lard consumption, with a concurrent increase in chow consumption. Sibutramine effects disappeared after treatment discontinuation. The NMDA receptor antagonist memantine (5 mg/kg, IP) significantly decreased lard consumption and increased chow consumption, comparable to effects of sibutramine; however, memantine’s effects persisted after treatment discontinuation. The effects of the mGluR5 antagonist MTEP (7.5 mg/kg, IP) on food consumption were in the same direction as seen with memantine, but the observed differences were not significant. In an additional control experiment, sibutramine and memantine reduced unlimited (24 h) chow intake during the treatment phase. Present results provide evidence that glutamatergic neurotransmission might be involved in the regulation of excessive consumption of highly palatable foods, and suggest that NMDA receptor may be an attractive target for developing obesity and disordered eating pharmacotherapies

From AIDS to Opioids: How to Respond to an Epidemic

The United States is facing a vast epidemic of opioid-related deaths. More than 2.4 million Americans have a severe opioid use disorder (OUD) involving dependence on pain medications, heroin, or both, and rates of drug overdose deaths in this country have outpaced mortality from motor vehicle accidents since 2013. The rising death toll has been rivaled in modern history only by that at the peak of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s. Although these epidemics differ in nature, the large-scale, highly coordinated response to AIDS that was eventually mounted may be instructive for combating the opioid epidemic

Drug treatment of SARS-Cov2: potential effects in patients with substance use disorders (SUD).

Severe acute respiratory syndrome- Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) has presented an unprecedented challenge of finding therapeutic agents. Presently hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), lopinavir-ritonavir combination (LR), remdesivir, and favipiravir are candidate medications. Patients with substance use disorder (SUD) are especially susceptible to develop COVID-19 owing to underlying comorbidities, immune-suppression, and socioeconomic circumstances of drug use [1]. Moreover, the SARS-CoV2 pandemic has met with a pre-existing epidemic of Opioid use disorders. Given the susceptibility and magnitude of both the conditions, co-occurrence seems to be commonplace. Therefore, exploring the effects of candidate medications (for SARS-CoV2) among patients with SUD warrant clinical attention...