Nicotine cue: lack of effect of the alpha 7 nicotinic receptor antagonist methyllycaconitine.

To assess the role of the alpha 7 neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in the discriminative stimulus properties of (-)-nicotine, this study investigated the ability of the alpha 7 receptor antagonist methyllycaconitine to modulate the nicotine cue. In rats trained to discriminate (-)-nicotine from saline, intraperitoneal injections of methyllycaconitine neither induced nor blocked the nicotine cue. Intracerebroventricular administration of methyllycaconitine, neither potentiated nor blocked the effect of (-)-nicotine. On the other hand, intracerebroventricular injections of mecamylamine blocked the nicotine cue. The available evidence indicate that the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain blocked by methyllycaconitine, those presumably containing alpha 7 subunits, do not participate in the expression of the discriminative stimulus properties of (-)-nicotine.