Cholinergic mediation of the discriminative stimulus properties of clozapine

Rats were trained to discriminate clozapine (CLZ; 5.76 mg/kg, IP t-30 min) in a two-lever operant task in which responding on the correct lever was reinforced with water under a fixed ratio 32 schedule. The ED50 of CLZ was 1.1 mg/kg. The CLZ cue was generalised to atropine (ED50 = 8.7 mg/kg), scopolamine (ED50 = 0.37 mg/kg) and fluperlapine (ED50 = 4.0 mg/kg), but not to non-cholinergic compounds, i.e. buspirone, diazepam, ketanserin, prazosin or SCH 23390. The peripherally-acting muscarinic antagonist methylscopolamine did not substitute for CLZ. Furthermore, the CLZ cue was marginally attenuated by d-amphetamine; a high dose of oxotremorine (1 mg/kg) appeared to block the CLZ cue (to 22%). However, this effect could not be evaluated statistically due to an insufficient number of animals responding. These results may indicate that the discriminative stimulus effects of CLZ primarily involve antagonism of central muscarinic acetylcholine receptors.