Myocardial damage post short-term self-administration cocaine usage in rat

Cocaine abuse remains a significant risk with profound adverse impact on cardiovascular health. While long-term cocaine addiction-induced cardiotoxicity is well-documented, the underlying mechanism and the molecular effects of short-term recreational usage of cocaine on the heart have not been well studied. We established a short-term cocaine exposure rat model through self-administration, mimicking real-world recreational cocaine usage. Our results indicate that even such short-term cocaine usage induces deleterious effect on the heart including pathological remodeling and transcriptome reprogramming associated with major metabolic and contractile processes. This study sheds important insight on the molecular mechanisms of short-term exposure of cocaine-induced cardiovascular damage.