Alasmari Fawaz, Crotty Alexander Laura E, Hammad Alaa M, Bojanowski Christine M, Moshensky Alex, Sari Youssef
Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, United States.
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Front Pharmacol. 2019 Aug 12;10:885. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2019.00885. eCollection 2019.
Electronic (E)-cigarettes are the latest form of nicotine delivery device and are highly popular in the general population. It is currently unknown whether vaping E-cigarettes (E-CIGs) leads to nicotine addiction. Alterations in the levels of the neurotransmitters in the mesocorticolimbic areas have been reported to mediate the initiation and development of nicotine addiction. Therefore, to determine whether E-CIGs activate the same addiction pathways as conventional cigarettes, we investigated for the effects of daily inhalation of nicotine (24 mg/ml)-containing E-CIG vapor for 6 months on the concentrations of these neurotransmitters in the frontal cortex (FC) and striatum (STR) of male C57BL/6 mice as compared to control group that was exposed to air only. We reported here that 6-month E-CIG vapor containing nicotine inhalation decreased dopamine concentration only in the STR. There were no changes in serotonin concentrations in the FC or STR. Chronic E-CIG exposure also increased glutamate concentration in the STR alone, while glutamine concentrations were increased in both the FC and STR. We found that E-CIG exposure also decreased GABA concentration only in the FC. These data suggest that chronic E-CIG use alters homeostasis of several neurotransmitters in the mesocorticolimbic areas, which may result in the development of nicotine dependence in E-CIG users.
电子烟是尼古丁输送装置的最新形式，在普通人群中非常流行。目前尚不清楚吸电子烟是否会导致尼古丁成瘾。据报道，中脑边缘叶区域神经递质水平的改变介导了尼古丁成瘾的起始和发展。因此，为了确定电子烟是否与传统香烟激活相同的成瘾途径，我们研究了与仅暴露于空气中的对照组相比，雄性C57BL/6小鼠每天吸入含尼古丁（24毫克/毫升）的电子烟蒸汽6个月对额叶皮质（FC）和纹状体（STR）中这些神经递质浓度的影响。我们在此报告，吸入含尼古丁的电子烟蒸汽6个月仅降低了纹状体中的多巴胺浓度。额叶皮质或纹状体中的血清素浓度没有变化。长期接触电子烟也仅增加了纹状体中的谷氨酸浓度，而额叶皮质和纹状体中的谷氨酰胺浓度均增加。我们发现，接触电子烟也仅降低了额叶皮质中的GABA浓度。这些数据表明，长期使用电子烟会改变中脑边缘叶区域几种神经递质的稳态，这可能导致电子烟使用者对尼古丁产生依赖。
