The objective of this study was to evaluate possible changes caused by multiple cocaine administration, alone and in combination with 1,4-dihydropiridine calcium channel blocker nifedipine, on cytochrome P450 levels both in the brain and liver. The experiment was done on male Wistar rats divided in four groups: control, treated with nifedipine (5 mg kg -1 i.p. for five days), treated with cocaine (15 mg kg -1 i.p. for five days), and treated with nifedipine and 30 minutes later with cocaine (also for five days). Total cytochrome P450 was measured spectrometrically in liver and brain microsomes. Multiple administration of cocaine alone and in combination with nifedipine did not change the brain P450 significantly. In the liver, nifedipine significantly increased P450 by 28 % vs. control. In contrast, cocaine significantly decreased P450 by 17 % vs. control. In animals treated with nifedipine and cocaine, cytochrome P450 increased 11 % (p<0.01) vs. control, decreased 12.5 % (p<0.001) vs. nifedipine group and increased 34 % (p<0.0001) vs. cocaine group. These results suggest that the cocaine and nifedipine interact at the metabolic level. Cocaine is an alkaloid psychostimulant with high addictive potential. It has a high affinity for the transporters of dopamine, serotonine and noradrenaline, and blocks their reuptake (1).
KEY WORDS: calcium channel blocker, metabolism, microsomes, in vivo interactionsCocaine is extensively metabolized in humans and animals by hepatic and plasma esterases to pharmacologically inactive benzoylecgonine, ecgonine methyl ester (2), and an active metabolite, norcocaine, the product of N-demethylation. Isoenzymes involved in cocaine N-demethylation show species differences. In humans and mice cocaine is N-demethylated by CYP 3A, and in rats by both CYP 3A and CYP 2B (3). The involvement of CYP 3A4 in cocaine metabolism implies possible metabolic interactions with other substrates of this isoenzyme, including Ca 2+ channel blockers nifedipine, nimodipine, and amlodipine (4).Literature data suggest that L-type calcium channels play a principal role in the regulation of adaptive changes in the central nervous system (5). Blockers of these channels are interesting for their potential application as anti-addiction agents, as they appear to play a principal role in the regulation of adaptive changes in the central nervous system by maintaining different types of drug dependence and withdrawal, including those induced by psyhostimulants (6). In our earlier studies (7) we have demonstrated that nifedipine, co-administered with morphine, attenuates the symptoms of opiate withdrawal that correlated with the changes in neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS). At the same time we observed interactions between morphine and nifedipine in the liver.