James E. Smith, Ph.D., Professor and Chair
Dr. Smith serves as Professor and Chair in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and has served in that capacity since 1989. The Department has moved from 80th in NIH funding to 5th in the nation during the more than 16 years of his direction. Dr. Smith is a nationally and internationally recognized researcher in the area of neurobiology of drug self-administration. Dr. Smith has served on numerous special committees (at the School of Medicine and at local, state and national levels), had professional appointments on editorial boards and editorships, holds professional memberships in neuroscience, physiology, and pharmacology and neurochemistry organizations and societies.

SYNOPSIS OF AREA OF INTEREST:: For the past three decades, the investigation of the neuronal circuits and pathways mediating drug reinforcement has been Dr. Smith's passion.

DETAILED AREA OF INTEREST: Our laboratory researches the processes and mechanisms of the addictive properties of drugs of abuse which include cocaine, heroin, the combination of the 2 drugs (speedball) and alcohol. Turnover rates of dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, aspartate, glutamate, gamma-aminobutyric acid, and acetylcholine in drug self-administering rats provide definition of the brain circuitry underlying the self-administration processes. These circuitries are then validated with in vivo microdialysis, intracranial microinjections of neurotoxin and selective receptor alkylating agents, neurotransmitter receptor binding, gene expression and protein expression to identify the molecular mechanisms mediating drug self-administration. Dr. Smith's laboratory continues to make important contributions to the understanding of the neuronal pathways mediating reinforcement. This includes recent demonstrations of the involvement of specific cholinergic neuronal pathways in cocaine self-administration as well as biological substrates of the potentiation of cocaine's reinforcing actions by opiate agonists (speedball).

PUBLICATIONS:

Smith JE, Vaughn TC, Co C. Acetylcholine turnover rates in rat brain regions during cocaine self-administration. Journal of Neurochemistry, 2004, 88: 502-512.

Sizemore GM, Co C, Koves T, Martin TJ, Smith JE. Time-dependent recovery from the effects of 6-hyroxydopamine lesions of the rat nucleus accumbens on cocaine self-administration and the levels of dopamine in microdialysates. Psychopharmacology 2004, 171:413-420.

Sizemore GM, Davies HML, Martin TJ, Smith JE. Effects of 2?-propanoyl-3?-(4-tolyl)-tropane (PTT) on the self-administration of cocaine, heroin, and cocaine/heroin combinations in rats. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2004, 73: 259-265.

Smith JE, Co C, Coller MD, Hemby SE, Martin TJ. Self-administered heroin and cocaine combinations in the rat: additive reinforcing effects - supra-additive effects on nucleus accumbens extracellular dopamine. Neuropsychopharmacology 2005 (in press).

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