Integration of molecular biological techniques and behavioural pharmacology

The rapidly advancing technology in the area of molecular neuroscience has greatly expanded the tools available to behavioural pharmacologists for investigating the molecular bases underlying the interrelation of pharmacological agents and behaviour. Strategies such as gene targeted knockout mutations, expression of an exogenous transgene, as well as the disruption of the cellular expression of genes with antisense oligonucleotides, are being successfully used to study normal and impaired behavioural function. Advantages of these genetic methods include the ability to manipulate systems for which selective pharmacological ligands do not exist, and the opportunity to study the interaction between genotype and environment without having to rely on spontaneously occurring mutants or selective breeding programmes. By targeting particular genes, questions can be asked about how genes control neuronal function and how manipulations of these genes affect behaviour. In particular, these strategies have been applied to studies of the molecular bases for disrupted behaviours, the behavioural actions of psychoactive drugs, and models of neuropsychiatric and neuropathological disorders. These emerging molecular biological techniques complement traditional pharmacological analysis to provide a very powerful approach with which to study the molecular correlates of behavioural pharmacology.