In chronic smokers, nicotine withdrawal symptoms during tobacco cessation can lead to smoking relapse. rodent models, exposure elicited physical dependence, whereas acute antagonism of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) immediately precipitated symptoms. Although the central serotonergic system plays an important role in withdrawal, exact raphe nuclei regulating these remain unknown. We...

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) nicotine transfer has been well documented in view of the fact that this alkaloid is a cerebral blood flow marker. However, limited data are available that describe BBB penetration of the major tobacco alkaloids after chronic nicotine exposure. This question needs to be addressed, given long-term nicotine exposure alters both BBB function and morphology. In contrast to...

Steiner AA, Oliveira DL, Roberts JL, Petersen SR, Romanovsky AA. Nicotine administration and withdrawal affect survival in systemic inflammation models. J Appl Physiol 105: 1028–1034, 2008. First published July 10, 2008; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.90619.2008.—How different regimens of nicotine administration and withdrawal affect systemic inflammation is largely unknown. We studied the effects of...

conclusions this study revealed that vitamin c could reduce the fibronectin accumulation effects of nicotine on kidney. results ihc results showed that fibronectin reaction significantly increased in proximal convoluted tubules of exp 1 compared with the control offspring; on the other hand, fibronectin reaction decreased in the mice offspring of exp 2. gene expression results showed that fibro...

Nicotine is a naturally occurring alkaloid found in many plants. The principal sources of nicotine exposure is through the use of tobacco, nicotine containing gum and nicotine replacement therapies. Nicotine is an amine composed of pyridine and pyrrolidine rings. It has been shown that nicotine crosses biological membranes and the blood brain barrier easily. The absorbed nicotine is extensively...

BACKGROUND Tobacco exposure is routinely assessed by quantifying nicotine metabolites in plasma or urine. On average, 80% of nicotine undergoes C-oxidation to cotinine. However, interindividual variation in nicotine glucuronidation is substantial, and glucuronidation accounts for from 0% to 40% of total nicotine metabolism. We report here the effect of a polymorphism in a UDP-glucuronsyltransfe...

Nicotine improves cognitive functions by modulating neuroplasticity and cortical excitability in nonsmoking subjects. As shown recently, the positive effect of nicotine on cognition might at least partially be caused by a focusing effect of nicotine on neuroplasticity in these subjects. Concordant to this, smokers under nicotine withdrawal show reduced cognitive abilities, which are at least pa...

Vaccination against nicotine blocks or attenuates nicotine-related behaviors relevant to addiction in rats. Passive immunization with nicotine-specific antibodies is an alternative to vaccination with the potential advantages of allowing control of antibody dose and affinity. In the current study, the effects of two antibodies on the distribution of nicotine to brain were evaluated during chron...

Cigarette smoking is common despite adverse health effects. Nicotine's effects on learning may contribute to addiction by enhancing drug-context associations. Effects of nicotine on learning could be direct or could occur by altering systems that modulate cognition. Because thyroid signaling can alter cognition and nicotine/smoking may change thyroid function, nicotine could affect learning thr...

Global tobacco deaths are high and rising. Tobacco use is primarily driven by nicotine addiction. Overall tobacco control policy is relatively well agreed upon but a long term nicotine policy has been less well considered and requires further debate. Reaching consensus is important because a nicotine policy is integral to the target of reducing tobacco caused disease, and the contentious issues...