Nicotine dependence: studies with a laboratory model

Measuring the emergence of tobacco dependence: the contribution of negative reinforcement models

This review of negative reinforcement models of drug dependence is part of a series that takes the position that a complete understanding of current concepts of dependence will facilitate the development of reliable and valid measures of the emergence of tobacco dependence. Other reviews within the series consider models that emphasize positive reinforcement and social learning/cognitive models. This review summarizes negative reinforcement in general and then presents four current negative reinforcement models that emphasize withdrawal, classical conditioning, self-medication and opponent-processes. For each model, the paper outlines central aspects of dependence, conceptualization of dependence development and influences that the model might have on current and future measures of dependence. Understanding how drug dependence develops will be an important part of future successful tobacco dependence measurement, prevention and treatment strategies.

Motivational Influences on Cigarette Smoking

Cigarette smoking is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity and a particularly common and intractable addictive disorder. Research shows that nicotine is a sine qua non of tobacco addiction and that it produces the hallmark effects of addictive drugs: sensitization, tolerance, physical dependence, and euphoria/elation. Research on the development of smoking reveals that although smoking prevalence has declined from a peak in the mid-1990s, close to 30% of twelfth graders still smoke. Smoking in adolescents is related to development of physical dependence, ethnicity, impulsivity, affective disorder, and peer influences. However, which of these exerts the greatest causal effects is unknown, and their influence no doubt varies across individuals and across development. Once dependence on tobacco smoking is established, evidence suggests that tobacco motivation is strongly influenced by a reduction in withdrawal symptoms, an expectation of stress reduction, and conditioned reinforcement. Nicotine motivation may also be influenced by modulation in stimulus incentive value.

Characterization of the effects of bupropion on the reinforcing properties of nicotine and food in rats

Bupropion is an atypical antidepressant drug that is the only nonnicotine-based prescription medicine approved for smoking cessation by the Food and Drug Administration. The aim of the present experiments was to investigate the effects of bupropion (5-40 mg/kg) on the reinforcing properties of nicotine and food in rats. The effects of bupropion were studied under two schedules of reinforcement: a fixed ratio 5 time-out 20-sec (FR5 TO20 s) and a progressive ratio (PR). Rats were trained to respond for nicotine (0.01 or 0.03 mg/kg/infusion, free base) or food under the FR5 TO20 s schedule. Pretreatment with the highest dose of bupropion (40 mg/kg) resulted in a significant reduction (approximately 50%) of nicotine intake in rats self-administering 0.03 mg/kg/infusion of nicotine. The same dose of bupropion also decreased (approximately 40%) the self-administration of 0.01 mg/kg/infusion of nicotine, but this effect did not reach statistical significance. Pretreatment with bupropion slightly (approximately 15%) reduced responding for food under the FR5 TO20 s schedule. Finally, pretreatment with bupropion did not affect the self-administration of nicotine (0.03 mg/kg/infusion) under a PR schedule, but dose-dependently increased responding for food under the same PR schedule. These findings indicate that a high dose of bupropion decreases the reinforcing properties of nicotine as measured under an FR schedule, while having no apparent effects on breaking points for nicotine under a PR schedule that reflects both the reinforcing properties and the motivation to obtain nicotine.

Mecamylamine acutely increases human intravenous nicotine self-administration

Previous studies of human cigarette smoking have shown that administration of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist mecamylamine produces acute increases in smoking behavior. In contrast, studies of intravenous nicotine self-administration in animals typically show an immediate decrease in self-administration behavior following mecamylamine administration. To investigate whether this discrepancy might be due in part to the mode of nicotine self-administration (intravenous vs. cigarette smoke), we measured the rate of intravenous nicotine self-administration in tobacco-dependent human smokers. After being trained in a preliminary session to self-administer puff-sized bolus doses of nicotine, 16 subjects were exposed to two sessions (4 h duration) in which they could self-administer intravenous nicotine ad lib. Two hours prior to one session, subjects swallowed a capsule containing 10 mg mecamylamine, and before the other session they took a placebo capsule. Rates of responding for nicotine were assessed, as were subjective reports of withdrawal symptoms and plasma nicotine levels. There was a significantly higher rate of nicotine self-administration in the mecamylamine condition, and mecamylamine attenuated the reduction in craving over the session that occurred during nicotine self-administration. These results indicate that route of administration is not likely the major source of the discrepancy between findings from animal and human studies of nicotine administration. Instead, it is likely that the higher rates of nicotine self-administration induced by mecamylamine were due to an attenuation of the effects of nicotine (e.g., alleviation of withdrawal symptoms) in nicotine-dependent subjects. Thus, animal models of nicotine dependence may need to be employed in conjunction with self-administration procedures in order to duplicate the effects of mecamylamine observed in studies of human smokers.

SSR591813, a novel selective and partial alpha4beta2 nicotinic receptor agonist with potential as an aid to smoking cessation

(5aS,8S,10aR)-5a,6,9,10-Tetrahydro,7H,11H-8,10a-methanopyrido[2',3':5,6]pyrano[2,3-d]azepine (SSR591813) is a novel compound that binds with high affinity to the rat and human alpha4beta2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subtypes (Ki = 107 and 36 nM, respectively) and displays selectivity for the alpha4beta2 nAChR (Ki, human alpha3beta4 > 1000, alpha3beta2 = 116; alpha1beta1deltagamma > 6000 nM and rat alpha7 > 6000 nM). Electrophysiological experiments indicate that SSR591813 is a partial agonist at the human alpha4beta2 nAChR subtype (EC50 = 1.3 micro M, IA =19% compared with the full agonist 1,1-dimethyl-4-phenyl-piperazinium). In vivo findings from microdialysis and drug discrimination studies confirm the partial intrinsic activity of SSR591813. The drug increases dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens shell (30 mg/kg i.p.) and generalizes to nicotine or amphetamine (10-20 mg/kg i.p.) in rats, with an efficacy approximately 2-fold lower than that of nicotine. Pretreatment with SSR591813 (10 mg/kg i.p.) reduces the dopamine-releasing and discriminative effects of nicotine. SSR591813 shows activity in animal models of nicotine dependence at doses devoid of unwanted side effects typically observed with nicotine (hypothermia and cardiovascular effects). The compound (10 mg/kg i.p.) also prevents withdrawal signs precipitated by mecamylamine in nicotine-dependent rats and partially blocks the discriminative cue of an acute precipitated withdrawal. SSR591813 (20 mg/kg i.p.) reduces i.v. nicotine self-administration and antagonizes nicotine-induced behavioral sensitization in rats. The present results confirm important role for alpha4beta2 nAChRs in mediating nicotine dependence and suggest that SSR591813, a partial agonist at this particular nAChR subtype, may have therapeutic potential in the clinical management of smoking cessation.

Attenuation of nicotine-induced antinociception, rewarding effects, and dependence in mu-opioid receptor knock-out mice

The involvement of mu-opioid receptors in different behavioral responses elicited by nicotine was explored by using mu-opioid receptor knock-out mice. The acute antinociceptive responses induced by nicotine in the tail-immersion and hot-plate tests were reduced in the mutant mice, whereas no difference between genotypes was observed in the locomotor responses. The rewarding effects induced by nicotine were then investigated using the conditioning place-preference paradigm. Nicotine produced rewarding responses in wild-type mice but failed to produce place preference in knock-out mice, indicating the inability of this drug to induce rewarding effects in the absence of mu-opioid receptors. Finally, the somatic expression of the nicotine withdrawal syndrome, precipitated in dependent mice by the injection of mecamylamine, was evaluated. Nicotine withdrawal was significantly attenuated in knock-out mutants when compared with wild-type mice. In summary, the present results show that mu-opioid receptors are involved in the rewarding responses induced by nicotine and participate in its antinociceptive responses and the expression of nicotine physical dependence.

Nicotine withdrawal syndrome: behavioural distress and selective up-regulation of the cyclic AMP pathway in the amygdala

Nicotine addiction is a major public health issue. The use of laboratory animal models is a crucial tool in research aiming at understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms of nicotine dependence and at proposing new therapies. In rodents, cessation of nicotine exposure or administration of the nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine induces a nicotine withdrawal syndrome. Antagonist-precipitated withdrawal from other abused drugs such as opiates or cannabinoids has been associated with region-specific modifications of the activity of the cyclic AMP pathway. Here we show that mecamylamine-precipitated nicotine withdrawal in the rat is characterized by an increase in thigmotaxis (time spent in the periphery of an open field) that may be indicative of behavioural distress and can be associated with a selective up-regulation of adenylyl cyclase activity in the amygdala, a region implicated in the regulation of negative affect in response to aversive stimuli, including withdrawal. Adenylyl cyclase activity that is increased during precipitated nicotine withdrawal is stimulated by calcium/calmodulin, as is also the case for opioid and cannabinoid abstinence. This suggests that directly or indirectly mediated increases in the activity of the cyclic AMP pathway could constitute a possible common molecular mechanism underlying neuroadaptive changes following abstinence from different abused drugs.

Cue dependency of nicotine self-administration and smoking

A paradox exists regarding the reinforcing properties of nicotine. The abuse liability associated with smoking equals or exceeds that of other addictive drugs, yet the euphoric, reinforcing and other psychological effects of nicotine, compared to these other drugs, are more subtle, are manifest under more restricted conditions, and do not readily predict the difficulty most smokers experience in achieving abstinence. One possible resolution to this apparent inconsistency is that environmental cues associated with drug delivery become conditioned reinforcers and take on powerful incentive properties that are critically important for sustaining smoking in humans and nicotine self-administration in animals. We tested this hypothesis by using a widely employed self-administration paradigm in which rats press a lever at high rates for 1 h/day to obtain intravenous infusions of nicotine that are paired with two types of visual stimuli: a chamber light that when turned on signals drug availability and a 1-s cue light that signals drug delivery. We show that these visual cues are at least as important as nicotine in sustaining a high rate of responding once self-administration has been established, in the degree to which withdrawing nicotine extinguishes the behavior, and in the reinstatement of lever pressing after extinction. Additional studies demonstrated that the importance of these cues was manifest under both fixed ratio and progressive ratio (PR) schedules of reinforcement. The possibility that nicotine-paired cues are as important as nicotine in smoking behavior should refocus our attention on the psychology and neurobiology of conditioned reinforcers in order to stimulate the development of more effective treatment programs for smoking cessation.