Attenuating effects of heat-processed Panax ginseng (Red and Black) on methamphetamine-induced behaviors via...

Methamphetamine (METH) is one of the most widely used psychostimulants associated with substance use disorders. Korean red ginseng extract (RGE), produced by the single steaming process of Panax ginseng, has been reported to inhibit drug-induced reward behavior in several animal models. However, research on the effects of Korean black ginseng extract (BGE), produced by repeated steaming cycles (typically at least three times) of Panax ginseng, on methamphetamine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) in mice remains limited. In this study, male C57BL/6 N mice were treated according to the same schedule used for CPP, pretreated with RGE or BGE, followed by behavioral and biochemical analyses, including conditioned place preference (CPP), Western blotting (WB), immunohistochemistry (IHC), and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in the striatum and nucleus accumbens. Our results demonstrate that pretreatment with RGE and BGE inhibited METH-induced CPP. We also found that pretreatment with RGE and BGE reversed METH-induced changes in dopamine-related protein expression, neurotransmission, and dopamine levels, suggesting that ginseng extracts may modulate dopaminergic signaling associated with drug reward.