Table 1.

Summary of effect of MCR agonists and antagonists, and gene knockouts, on alcohol-related behaviours

Treatment	Mode of administration	Species	Effect on ethanol intake	Reference
MTII	i.c.v.	C57 mice	Decreased ethanol intake	Navarro et al., (2005, 2003)
		AA rats	Decreased ethanol intake	Ploj et al., (2002)
		msP rats	Decreased ethanol intake	Polidori et al., (2006)
		MC4R −/−	No effect	Navarro et al., (2011)
		MC3−/−	Decreased ethanol intake	Navarro et al., (2005)
		MC3 −/−	Enhanced reduction of binge-like ethanol drinking	Olney et al., (2014b)
	Intra-LH	C57 mice	Blunted binge-like ethanol consumption	Sprow et al., (2016)
	Intra-amygdala	P rats	Decreased voluntary consumption	York et al., (2011)
α-MSH	Intra-VTA	Sprague-Dawley rats	Increased self-administration of ethanol	Shelkar et al., (2015)
MC4R selective	i.c.v	C57 mice	Decreased ethanol intake	Navarro et al., (2005)
agonist	Intra-VTA and - NAc	Sprague-Dawley rats	Decreased ethanol intake	Carvajal et al., (2017); Lerma-Cabrera et al., (2012)
	Intra-NAc	Sprague-Dawley rats	Decreased ethanol palatability	Lerma-Cabrera et al., (2013b)
MC4R antagonist	Intra-VTA	Sprague-Dawley rats	Blunt ethanol self-administration	(Shelkar et al., 2015)
AgRP	i.c.v.	C57 mice	Increased ethanol intake	Navarro et al., (2005)
			Blocked MTII-induced reduced ethanol intake	Navarro et al., (2003)
		AA rats	No effect	Ploj et al., (2002)
		msP rats	No effect	Polidori et al., (2006)
	Intra-LH	C57 mice	Increased binge-like ethanol consumption	Sprow et al., (2016)
	None	AgRP −/−	Decrease ethanol intake Decrease ethanol self-administration	Navarro et al., (2009)