Cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript, also known as CART, is a neuropeptide protein that in humans is encoded by the CARTPT gene.
[1][2] CART appears to have roles in reward, feeding, and stress,[3] and it has the functional properties of an endogenous psychostimulant.
When CART was injected into rat VTA, increased locomotor activity was seen, which is one of the signs of "central stimulation" caused by psychostimulants, such as cocaine and amphetamine.
[11][12][13] CART is an anorectic peptide and is widely expressed in both the central and peripheral nervous systems, particularly concentrated in the hypothalamus.
CART is also found in a subset of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the primary afferent neurons in the retina.
Specifically, it labels ON/OFF Direction Selective Ganglion Cells (ooDSGCs), a subpopulation of RGCs that stratify in both the ON and OFF sublamina of the Inner Plexiform Layer (IPL) of the retina.
[21][22] CART is thought to play a key role in the opioid mesolimbic dopamine circuit that modulates natural reward processes.
In the late 1980s, researchers started to synthesize structurally cocaine-like and functionally CART-like substances in order to find medications that could help treat eating disorders as well as cocaine abuse.