Department of Drug Addiction Pharmacology

Head:

Professor Małgorzata Filip

Research staff:

Professor Edmund Przegaliński MD PhD, Małgorzata Frankowska PhD, Karolina Wydra PhD, Magdalena Hubalewska-Mazgaj PhD, Irena Smaga-Maślanka PhD

Technical staff / specialists:

Teresa Piwowarczyk, Agata Suder, Renata Pieniążek

PhD students:

Justyna Brodowicz MSc, Dawid Gawliński MSc, Kinga Gawlińska MSc

Research profile
The Department of Drug Addiction Pharmacology (DAP) was founded in 2017 as a continuation of Drug Addiction Laboratory (established in 2006 as a unit in the Department of Pharmacology). The team is focused on studying various aspects of addiction to psychostimulants (amphetamine, methylenedioxyamphetamine, cocaine), nicotine, alcohol and THC. Study areas of the DAP include molecular and neurochemical mechanisms of addiction and possibilities for pharmacological intervention.

In our research, we use virtually all available research methods that visualize different stages of drug addiction process (initiation, prolonged drug use, craving and other withdrawal symptoms, relapses). The scope of our research includes animal models (experimental depression, transgenic animals), pharmacological manipulations (e.g. lesions, intrastructural and peripheral drug application, injections of selective receptor ligands), biochemical analyzes (changes in receptor and enzyme expression, synaptic and tissue levels of neurotransmitters / neuromodulators) and molecular analysis (mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), gene and miRNA expression, epigenetic analysis).

We closely cooperate with a number of scientific units in Poland (Department of Pharmacodynamics, Faculty of Pharmacy - Medical University of Warsaw, Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics, Faculty of Pharmacy - Medical University of Lublin) and abroad (Department of Nervous System Research - Karolinska Institutet, Faculty of Pharmacy - University of Ferrara, Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Research - University of Milan, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy - University of Friedrich Alexander in Erlangen-Nürnberg).

Research methods
Behavioral methods and tests:
Measurement of locomotor activity in animals, intravenous self-administration of addictive substances, free choice alcohol consumption, natural reward self-administration, sucrose preference test, drug discrimination test, elevated zero maze, modified forced swim test

Molecular biology methods:
DNA / RNA isolation, PCR, RT-qPCRe, electrophoresis in agarose and polyacrylamide gels

Biochemical methods:
Protein isolation, BCA protein assay, Western blot, ELISA, in vivo microdialysis

Histological and histochemical methods:
Tissue fixation, receptor autoradiography, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence

Other:
Stereotactic implantation of intracerebral cannulas, intravenous cannulation, intracerebral drug administration, bulbectomy

The most important discoveries in the last 3 years
- Amide derivative of N-acetylcysteine inhibits cocaine relapse in rats with experimental depression.
- Tonic activation of A2A receptors located in the nucleus accumbens induces cocaine relapse.