Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
Department of Pharmacology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
Alcohol. 2020 Jun;85:57-64. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2019.09.006. Epub 2019 Sep 23.
Late adolescence and young adulthood, corresponding to the high school and college years, are vulnerable periods for increased alcohol and nicotine use. The dramatic increase in the prevalence of electronic cigarette use is particularly concerning in these age groups. Late adolescents and young adults are more likely to engage in cycles of binge drug consumption, and alcohol and nicotine are frequently used together. However, there are few data examining the combination of alcohol and nicotine in binge models in animal models. In this study, our objectives were to determine how voluntary nicotine consumption beginning in late adolescence influenced subsequent binge alcohol consumption in young adulthood, how a combination of alcohol and nicotine binge consumption differed from alcohol-only binge consumption, and whether nicotine would be consumed when presented in a binge procedure. Male C57BL/6J mice voluntarily consumed unsweetened alcohol and nicotine in continuous-access bottle-choice procedures in combination with cycles of drinking-in-the-dark. Our results show that experience with voluntary nicotine consumption in late adolescence did not affect subsequent binge alcohol consumption in early adulthood. However, mice that consumed nicotine in adolescence showed an initial decrease in alcohol preference, and consequently increase in nicotine preference, on the first session of combined ethanol and nicotine binge consumption in adulthood compared with mice that drank only water during late adolescence. Lastly, we found that mice readily consumed unsweetened nicotine when presented in a binge procedure, and the level of consumption exceeded the nicotine consumption observed in the combination alcohol and nicotine binge. Our data show that expansion of the patterns of alcohol and nicotine co-consumption in a mouse models is possible, which will enable us to dissect relevant molecular targets underlying these consumption patterns and better inform drug development efforts.
青少年晚期和青年期，对应高中和大学阶段，是酒精和尼古丁使用增加的脆弱时期。电子烟使用的流行率急剧增加，在这些年龄组中尤其令人担忧。青少年晚期和青年期更有可能参与狂欢性药物消费周期，而酒精和尼古丁经常一起使用。然而，在动物模型中，关于酒精和尼古丁在狂欢模型中组合的研究数据很少。在这项研究中，我们的目标是确定从青少年晚期开始自愿吸食尼古丁如何影响青年期的随后狂欢性饮酒，酒精和尼古丁的组合狂欢性消费与仅酒精狂欢性消费有何不同，以及尼古丁是否会在狂欢程序中被消耗。雄性 C57BL/6J 小鼠在连续接入瓶选择程序中自愿消耗无糖酒精和尼古丁，同时经历饮酒暗周期。我们的结果表明，青少年时期自愿吸食尼古丁的经历不会影响成年早期的狂欢性饮酒。然而，与青少年期只喝水的小鼠相比，在成年期进行联合乙醇和尼古丁狂欢性消费的第一阶段，吸食尼古丁的小鼠表现出初始的酒精偏好降低，随后尼古丁偏好增加。最后，我们发现，当在狂欢程序中提供时，小鼠很容易消耗未加糖的尼古丁，消耗水平超过了在联合酒精和尼古丁狂欢性消费中观察到的尼古丁消耗。我们的数据表明，在小鼠模型中扩大酒精和尼古丁共同消费的模式是可能的，这将使我们能够剖析这些消费模式背后的相关分子靶点，并更好地为药物开发工作提供信息。
