Anesthesia Effects on BOLD and RCBV Responses Induced by L-Tetrahydropalmatine

Xiping Liu¹, Zheng Yang², Rupeng Li¹, Qian Yin¹, Shi-Jiang Li¹

L-tetrahydropalmatine (l-THP), purified from Chinese herb Stephanie, was recently demonstrated to be effective in attenuating heroin craving and relapse in heroin addicts. Also, it inhibited cocaines rewarding effects in animal models. As interactions of drug and anesthetic agent may affect the phMRI response to the drug of interest and complicate the interpretation of the data. We investigated the l-THP-induced BOLD and rCBV brain responses using three anesthesia conditions (isoflurane, urethane, and medetomidine) at high field to assess the confounding effects and interaction of different anesthetics on l-THP.