Presently, the main research interests are 1) the study of the mechanism of action by which acute administration of addictive drugs may affect the function of target neurons in brain areas related to addiction (phosphorylation of target proteins); 2) the study of the mechanism by which long-term administration of addictive drugs may affect synaptic plasticity (morphology); 3) the study of the pharmacology of the above actions of addictive drugs by the use of receptor antagonists and kinase inhibitors. These two main research topics involve the application of western blotting and image analysis of Golgi-Cox (spine density and morphology) and immunoistochemical (phosphoproteins) preparations. All these studies are paralleled, whereby necessary, by the appropriate behavioural analysis.

Elio Acquas is Professor of Pharmacology since March 2005.
1987: Degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies at the School of Pharmacy of the University of Cagliari.
1994: PhD in Neuroscience, University of Cagliari.
1995: Awarded a long-term fellowship by the HFSPO (Strasbourg, France).
1993-1996: PhD fellow at the Division of Neurological Sciences, Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
1997: Research associate at the School of Pharmacy of the University of Cagliari.
2002-2003: PhD fellow at the Department of Neuroscience of the Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.

E. Acquas (2000): Molecular pharmacology and neuroanatomy of alcohol: translation into clinical practice. In: CRC Handbook of Alcoholism: Clinical and theoretical approaches . G. Zernig, A. Saria and M. Kurz, eds., CRC Press.
E. Acquas, P. Marrocu, A. Pisanu, C. Cadoni, G. Zernig, A. Saria, and G. Di Chiara (2001): Intravenous administration of ecstasy (3,4-metylendioxymethamphetamine) enhances cortical and striatal acetylcholine release in vivo. Eur. J. Pharmacol., 418, 207-211.
E. Acquas, A. Pisanu, P. Marrocu, S.R. Goldberg and G. Di Chiara (2001): delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol enhances cortical and hippocampal acetylcholine release in vivo: a microdialysis study. Eur. J. Pharmacol., 419, 155-161.
E. Acquas, G. Tanda. and G. Di Chiara (2002),: Differential effects of caffeine on dopamine and acetylcholine transmission in brain areas of drug-naive and caffeine-pretreated rats. Neuropsychopharmacology 27(2), 182-193.
E. Acquas and G. Di Chiara (2002): Dopamine–Acetylcholine interactions. In: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, Vol. X, , Springer-Verlag, Chapter 15, pp. 85-115.
E. Acquas, A. Bachis, R. Nosheny, I. Cernak, and I. Mocchetti (2004),: Human Immunodeficiency Virus type I protein gp120 causes neuronal cell death in the rat brain by activating caspases. Neurotox. Res. 5(8), 605-615.
R.L. Nosheny, A. Bachis, E. Acquas and I. Mocchetti (2004): Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 glycoprotein gp120 reduces the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in vivo: potential implication for neuronal cell death. Eur. J. Neurosci., 20, 2857-2864.
M. Diana, S. Spiga, E. Acquas (2006): Persistent and reversible morphine withdrawal-induced morphological changes in the nucleus accumbens. Ann N Y Acad Sci., 1074:446-57.
E. Acquas, A. Pisanu,S. Spiga, A. Plumitallo, G. Zernig, and G. Di Chiara (2007): Differential effects of intravenous R,S-(±)-3,4-Methylendioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, Ecstasy) and its S(+)- and R(-) -enatiomers on dopamine transmission and Extracellular Signal Regulated Kinase in the rat nucleus accumbens shell and core. J. Neurochem., in press.