Does crossing over repeated treatment with the dopamine reuptake inhibitors cocaine and BTCP modify their effects on cocaine induced locomotion?

Because the dopamine reuptake inhibitors cocaine and BTCP produce different behavioral effects after repeated administration, we studied whether they could alter each other's effects by examining the effects of crossing over repeated treatment with cocaine and BTCP on cocaine-induced locomotion. Mal e C57BL/6 mice were treated repeatedly with cocaine or BTCP during a first phase (days 1-3) and 3 days later, treated repeatedly with the same or the other compound during a second phase (days 7-9), after which they were admi nistered one of several doses of cocaine on the next day. Locomotor activit y was assessed after every daily treatment. The results show that 1) cocain e induced sensitization to its locomotor effects, 2) cocaine-induced sensit ization was not altered by subsequent repeated treatment with BTCP, 3) init ial repeated treatment with BTCP induced apparent cross-tolerance to cocain e, and 4) the initial effects of repeated BTCP were not markedly altered by subsequent repeated treatment with cocaine. The results indicate that the initial effects produced by repeated cocaine or BTCP are enduring and relat ively difficult to alter by crossing over repeated treatment with the other compound. Thus, sensitization to the locomotor effects of cocaine in mice appeared to be attenuated by prior repeated treatment with BTCP but not rev ersed when followed by repeated treatment with BTCP.