Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Carvelli, Lucia

Abstract

Amphetamine (AMPH) is a potent psychostimulant and is a known substance of abuse, also used to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy. AMPH acts at the dopaminergic neurons through the dopamine transporter (DAT), and it leads to DAT-mediated efflux, resulting in an overall increase of dopamine (DA) in the synaptic cleft. It is known that exposure to AMPH may cause sensitization and/or tolerance. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying tolerance to AMPH are not yet well understood. Because DA has an inhibitory effect in C. elegans’ locomotion, the animals fail to sustain their normal swimming behavior when exposed to AMPH and paralyze within few minutes. This behavior, termed Swimming Induced Paralysis (SWIP), was used to test whether C. elegans develops sensitization and/or tolerance to AMPH. Our results show that repetitive exposures to AMPH reduced SWIP suggesting that C. elegans develops tolerance to AMPH after repeated exposures.

Comments

Includes bibliography.

Extent

29 p.

Identifier

FA00003725

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