# Identifying patterns of human polysubstance use to guidedevelopment of rodent models

> **NIH NIH R33** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2021 · $490,432

## Abstract

Project Abstract
Cocaine use disorder remains a significant public health problem in the US today, and there is a high risk of
relapse even after long periods of abstinence. The current translational pipeline relies on animal models such as
the extinction-reinstatement model to screen potential therapies for efficacy at attenuating relapse. While many
pharmacological agents successfully reduce cocaine-seeking in this model, these agents show little clinical
efficacy, and none have been FDA-approved for cocaine use disorder. One explanation for the failure of these
agents to translate to the clinic may lie in the fact that most cocaine users engage in poly-substance use (PSU),
while existing animal models of cocaine addiction involve self-administration of cocaine alone. Such PSU likely
engages different behavioral and neural mechanisms compared to cocaine alone. Indeed, our preliminary data
from a rat model of combined cocaine and alcohol use show that alcohol co-consumption significantly changes
the neurobiology supporting cocaine relapse, and renders potential pharmacotherapies ineffective. These data
and others highlight the need for a better understanding of PSU. Progress in this area is hampered, however, by
a paucity of information regarding how substance (particularly cocaine) users actually engage in PSU. The long-
term goal of this project is to determine the unique consequences of PSU on behavior and neurobiology
underlying cocaine-seeking. The objectives of the current proposal, which represent the first steps toward our
long-term goal, are to 1) develop and validate a survey instrument for evaluating detailed temporal patterns of
PSU in cocaine users; 2) determine in a cocaine-using population the most common temporal patterns of alcohol
and cannabis use (which are the most frequently used substances in combination with cocaine); 3) back-
translate these data to develop rat models of cocaine+alcohol and cocaine+cannabis use; and 4) determine their
consequences on neurobiological measures relevant for relapse (glutamate signaling and D2/3 dopamine
receptor expression in the nucleus accumbens). Our rationale is that rat models which more closely mimic actual
patterns of human substance use should better yield the underlying neuroadaptations present in humans, and
should thus serve as better platforms for therapeutic discovery. As such, our central, unified hypothesis is that
cocaine users will display high rates of comorbid cocaine+alcohol or cocaine+cannabis use in unique patterns
that can be translated into rat models, in which the neurobiology underlying relapse to cocaine-seeking will be
altered by such alcohol or cannabis use.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10246538
- **Project number:** 5R33DA045140-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Linda B. Cottler
- **Activity code:** R33 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $490,432
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-30 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10246538

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10246538, Identifying patterns of human polysubstance use to guidedevelopment of rodent models (5R33DA045140-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10246538. Licensed CC0.

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