Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, EPHE, INCIA, UMR5287, F-33000, Bordeaux, France.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2021 Aug;238(8):2235-2247. doi: 10.1007/s00213-021-05848-1. Epub 2021 Apr 22.
Tobacco products are very addictive, partly because they contain nicotine which is reinforcing, but also because they include appealing aromas and tastes. Flavor additives are such sensory stimuli which enhance attractiveness, as well as use and abuse of tobacco and vaping products. Yet, the interaction between these flavor additives and nicotine remains poorly understood.
We want to understand how flavors may reduce nicotine' aversive taste and how it may enhance its voluntary oral self-administration in mice.
We first studied the effect of flavor additives on nicotine solution palatability in a free bottle choice paradigm. Second, we investigated the effect of vanilla flavoring on the different stages of nicotine (40 μg/ml) oral self-administration in mice.
We show that adding flavors increase nicotine palatability and facilitate acquisition and maintenance of oral self-administration when compared to nicotine-alone group. Mice adapt their operant behavior depending on changes in nicotine concentration. All mice reinstate nicotine seeking upon presentation of associated cues. Nevertheless, vanilla-flavored nicotine was not more reinforcing than vanilla-flavored water which was reinforcing enough to drive similar operant response rates.
Flavor additives increase nicotine oral consumption and help maintaining operant behavior in mice. Moreover, flavors can be very attractive and can have high reinforcing value by themselves. Thus, it is crucial that the investigation on how taste signals play an important role in modulating oral nicotine intake in rodent models remains explored.
烟草制品非常容易使人上瘾，部分原因是它们含有令人上瘾的尼古丁，也因为它们含有吸引人的香气和味道。调味添加剂是一种感官刺激物，可增强烟草和电子烟产品的吸引力，以及使用和滥用。然而，这些调味添加剂和尼古丁之间的相互作用仍知之甚少。
我们想了解味道如何降低尼古丁的厌恶感，以及它如何增强老鼠对尼古丁的自愿口服摄取。
我们首先在自由瓶选择范式中研究了调味添加剂对尼古丁溶液适口性的影响。其次，我们研究了香草味对老鼠不同阶段（40μg/ml）口服尼古丁自我给药的影响。
与单独给予尼古丁相比，我们发现添加调味剂可增加尼古丁的适口性，并促进其口服自我给药的获得和维持。老鼠会根据尼古丁浓度的变化调整其操作性行为。所有老鼠在呈现相关线索时都会重新寻求尼古丁。然而，香草味尼古丁的强化作用并不比香草味水强，香草味水的强化作用足以驱动类似的操作性反应率。
调味添加剂可增加尼古丁的口服摄取，并有助于维持老鼠的操作性行为。此外，味道本身可能非常有吸引力，具有很高的强化价值。因此，研究味觉信号如何在调节啮齿动物模型中尼古丁的口服摄取方面发挥重要作用至关重要。
