Ricerc@Sapienza

Cocaine is the most commonly used illicit drug in the European Union. Its cardiac effects are numerous and diverse, both in acute and chronic abuse, and include myocardial infarction, myocarditis, catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy, and chronic cardiomyopathy (subclinical, hypertrophic, and dilated phases). Their clinical manifestations are vastly overlapping, and differential diagnosis should be performed using a thorough diagnostic workup featuring clinical history, laboratory tests, electrocardiography, stress test, noninvasive imaging modalities, and coronary angiography.

In the field of forensic toxicology, the use of non-destructive and easy-to-use analytical techniques deserves remarkable attention, especially in those situations involving public health and security. In addition, the miniaturization
and portability of one-touch devices for the detection of specific threats is required more and more.
In this study, a novel on-site MicroNIR/Chemometric platform was developed to perform a real-time prediction
of cocaine and its metabolites in non pre-treated oral fluid.

Background: In this paper, we reviewed translational studies concerned with environmental influences on the rewarding effects of heroin versus cocaine in rats and humans with substance use disorder. These studies show that both experienced utility (‘liking’) and decision utility (‘wanting’) of heroin and cocaine shift in opposite directions as a function of the setting in which these drugs were used. Briefly, rats and humans prefer using heroin at home but cocaine outside the home.

Previous studies have shown that rats trained to self-administer heroin and cocaine exhibit opposite preferences, as a function of setting, when tested in a choice paradigm. Rats tested at home prefer heroin to cocaine, whereas rats tested outside the home prefer cocaine to heroin. Here, we investigated whether drug history would influence subsequent drug preference in distinct settings. Based on a theoretical model of drug-setting interaction, we predicted that regardless of drug history rats would prefer heroin at home and cocaine outside the home.

Cocaine abuse has long been known to cause morbidity and mortality due to its cardiovascular toxic effects. The pathogenesis of the cardiovascular toxicity of cocaine use has been largely reviewed, and the most recent data indicate a fundamental role of oxidative stress in cocaine-induced cardiovascular toxicity, indicating that mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in the mechanisms of oxidative stress.