Chronic abuse of psychostimulants remains a severe problem across the
world, inflicting extensive physical, emotional and economic harm; however,there are still no effective treatments to date. Thus, there is an urgent need
to better understand the brain mechanisms that underlie addiction so that new
targets can be developed.
Chronic
abuse of psychoactive drugs produces profound changes in neurotransmitter
transporters and receptors, which have been associated with manifestations of
many addiction phenotypes such as tolerance/sensitization, dependence and
withdrawal. Although the molecular mechanisms underlyingpsychostimulant-induced changes in transporters and receptors remain elusive,
emerging evidence implicates brain lipids as potential mediators. This review
aims to provide a current understanding of the association between chronic
psychostimulant exposure and brain membrane lipid profile and highlight the
potential contribution of dysregulated brain membrane lipids to altered
neurotransmission and associated addiction behavior. The impact of
psychostimulant exposure on membrane phospholipid-derived intracellular lipid
signaling was extensively reviewed elsewhere.
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