“Charlie” (buphedrone/ethcathinone) behavioural patterns after stimulated binge administration

Sola Sancho, Sofía

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/19080

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Authors

Sola Sancho, Sofía

Advisor(s)

Lopes, Álvaro Teixeira

Abstract(s)

Since the entry of XXI century, the consume, availability and variety of new psychoactive substances also called “legal highs” “legal drugs” or “design drugs,” have been rising enormously. This tendency has increased the concern of both, health care providers and legal authorities about this family of drugs. This unique study is a first toxicological approach to a drug named “Charlie”. Effects for a repeated administration of a singular dose of 45mg/kg has been assessed. “Charlie” is a combination of two synthetic cathinones (Buphedrone and Ethcathinone) with no toxicological or behavioural studies done, until the date. For developing the study a binge administration was performed in a ten days study with the combination of the drug with ethanol in a dose of 2g/kg. For the toxicological assessment, adolescent male CD1 mice were used and four behavioural tests were chosen, Functional Observational Battery (FOB), Open Field (OF) test, Marble burying test and T-maze test. Results showed the significant differences between controls and mice under the influence of “Charlie” or under the mixture of “Charlie” and ethanol at all performed tests. The combination cathinone-ethanol showed mayor effects in the variables for FOB and OF than when the drug was administered alone ad different behavioural patterns in Marble and T-Maze tests. The study of the weights and food and water intake before and during the experiments was also assessed and results pointed the variations in weight and food intake during the days of the experiment suffering a marked decrease in those days. With this study it is demonstrated the influence of “Charlie” in the behaviour and physiological conditions of the individuals under its effects by using behavioural tasks for the assess and opening a new “file” in the cathinones behavioural assessment.