Abstract
Rationale
Nicotine is a principal psychoactive agent in tobacco, contributing to tobacco’s addictive potential. Preclinical studies on the effects of voluntary nicotine intake typically use self-administration procedures that provide continuous nicotine access during each self-administration session. However, many smokers consume cigarettes intermittently rather than continuously throughout each day. For drugs including cocaine and opioids, research in laboratory rats shows that intermittent intake can be more effective than continuous intake in producing patterns of drug use relevant to addiction.
Objective
We determined how intermittent versus continuous nicotine self-administration influences nicotine seeking and taking behaviours.
Methods
Female and male rats had continuous (i.e., Long Access; LgA, 6 h/day) or intermittent (IntA; 12 min ON, 60 min OFF, for 6 h/day) access to intravenous nicotine (15 µg/kg/infusion), for 12 daily sessions. We then assessed intake, responding for nicotine under a progressive ratio schedule of drug reinforcement and cue- and nicotine-induced reinstatement of drug seeking. We also estimated nicotine pharmacokinetic parameters during LgA and IntA self-administration.
Results
Overall, LgA rats took twice more nicotine than did IntA rats, yielding more sustained increases in estimated brain concentrations of the drug. However, the two groups showed similar motivation to seek and take nicotine, as measured using reinstatement and progressive ratio procedures, respectively.
Conclusions
Intermittent nicotine use is just as effective as continuous use in producing addiction-relevant behaviours, despite significantly less nicotine exposure. This has implications for modeling nicotine self-administration patterns in human smokers and resulting effects on brain and behaviour.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Paul Clarke for reading and commenting an earlier version of this manuscript. A version of this manuscript is posted on the preprint server, bioRxiv (BIORXIV/2023/563876).
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This research was supported by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant number 157572) to ANS. HEA was supported by a PhD scholarship from the Libyan-North American Scholarship Program of the Ministry of Higher Education in Libya.
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HEA and ANS designed the research. HEA performed all experiments and analyzed all data with guidance from ANS. VJ modelled nicotine concentrations. HEA and ANS wrote the article with revisions from VJ.
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Algallal, H.E., Jacquemet, V. & Samaha, AN. Intermittent nicotine access is as effective as continuous access in promoting nicotine seeking and taking in rats. Psychopharmacology (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-024-06546-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-024-06546-4