Why?

In 2010 between 153 million and 300 million people aged 15-64 (3.4-6.6 per cent of the world’s population in that age group) had used an illicit substance at least once in the previous year. (UNODC World Drug Report 2012)

Cocaine

Over the past decade, cocaine has become the illicit stimulant most commonly consumed in Europe, although most users are grouped in a small number of countries mostly from west of the EU. Some 15.5 million Europeans (aged between 15 and 64 years old) have used cocaine during their lives and nearly 4 million have used it in the past twelve months. (ODTE Annual report 2012)

Tobacco

Tobacco addiction is the most common (licit drug) addiction. It is probably the major public health problem in this context. Users are estimated 1.2 billion worldwide and 70% of them would like to quit. Nicotine is acknowledged as the main tobacco constituent responsible for addiction. Then studying the psychobiological determinants of nicotine addiction is an important experimental issue.

OptoPath answers

Safety and Therapeutic tests in the context of Drug Addiction

Using complementary procedures of a gold standard model, i.e. intravenous self-administration in rodents, we evaluate the addictive risk of new psychoactive compounds (a legal prerequisite for marketing authorization) as well as the anti-addiction potential of new compounds.

SAFADD-Products : Safety tests in the context of Addiction

• SAFADD 1 :  Evaluation of the abuse liability of new psychoactive drugs in rodents

THERAPADD-Products: Therapeutic tests in the context of Addiction

• THERAPADD 1 : Evaluation of new compounds for the treatment of tobacco use-related disorders

•  THERAPADD 2 : Evaluation of new compounds for the treatment of cocaine addiction in rodents

• THERAPADD 2A : Test Cocaine (Moderate use)
• THERAPADD 2B : Test Cocaine
• THERAPADD 2C : Test Cocaine

• THERAPADD 3 : Evaluation of new compounds for the treatment of heroin addiction in rodents

Equipment marketing

Based on different methods inspired from the DSM IV-based diagnosis of drug dependence, new innovative equipments have been developed by OptoPath scientists and are currently commercialized by Imetronic:

• Operant boxes for rats for developing a new procedure of decision-making in the context of drug addiction coupled with electrophysiology/optogenetics studies

• Intravenous self-administration boxes for the coupling of a model of cocaine addiction-like behavior in rats coupled with electrophysiology/optogenetics studies

• Dedicated rat self-administration boxes to observe nicotine addiction-like behavior and to establish the neurobiology/behavioral coupling.