animal Models to Investigate the Impact of Flavors on Nicotine addiction and Dependence.

The findings suggest that nicotine vapor can be reinforcing in animal models, indicating its potential for addiction in human tobacco smokers and nicotine vapers. Passive vapor exposure in rodents allows for the study of various features of human tobacco use. Specifically, chronic passive nicotine vapor exposure in adolescent rats increased their acquisition of nicotine IVSa in adulthood, paralleling the effects of adolescent smoking on adult nicotine use in humans. additionally, nicotine vapor-exposed rats showed escalated IVSa relative to their own baselines.

In terms of menthol's effect on nicotine self-administration, concentrations of 160 µM and 320 µM (25 and 50 mg/ml) increased nicotine self-administration compared to control groups. however, a lower concentration of 0.005% menthol did not increase IVSa and instead selectively influenced other behaviors.

Furthermore, the studies emphasize the importance of controlling for stress and biases in the testing methods. It is recommended to minimize stress by testing animals no more than a few times per week and to ensure unbiased analysis by performing all video scoring while blind to test solutions. Video files with poor visibility should be excluded from the analysis.

Bagdas D, Kebede N, Zepei aM, et al. animal Models to Investigate the Impact of Flavors on Nicotine addiction and Dependence. Current neuropharmacology. 2022;20(11):2175-2201. doi:10.2174/1570159X20666220524120231