anisomycin and Weight-Loss

Cocaine has been shown to reduce food intake and body weight in rodents and humans. The results of recent research suggest that de novo protein synthesis in the brain is associated with neuroadaptive changes in the central nervous system. The present study reports the effect of anisomycin, a protein synthesis inhibitor with limited toxicity, on the reduction in body weight resulting from repeated daily injections of cocaine (50 mg/kg) to mice from 7 inbred strains (AKR/J, BALB/cByJ, C3H/HeJ, C57BL/6J, CBA/J, DBA/2J and SJL/J). Repeated cocaine administration resulted in substantial weight loss in all but the BALB strain. Anisomycin (5-30 mg/kg), administered 5 min. prior to each daily cocaine injection, significantly attenuated cocaine-induced weight loss in SJL, C3H and CBA mice. The same treatment, however, had no effect on reduction in body weight in C57, AKR and DBA mice. In BALB mice, neither cocaine, anisomycin alone, nor the coadministration of the two drugs, affected weight gain during the experiment. The results suggest that there is a genotype-specific involvement of protein synthesis associated with cocaine-induced weight loss.

Topics: Animals; Anisomycin; Body Weight; Cocaine; Genotype; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred Strains; Species Specificity; Weight Loss