Stress and nicotine during adolescence disrupts adult hippocampal-dependent learning and alters stress reactivity.

Adolescence represents increased susceptibility to stress that increases risk for nicotine dependence. The present study examined the interactive effects of brief exposure to stress (shipping/transportation or experimentally induced) and chronic nicotine during adolescence on cognitive function and stress reactivity in adulthood. Adolescent (P31), but not young adult (P47), C57BL/6J mice had higher levels of corticosterone after shipping vs mice bred onsite.

Choline ameliorates adult learning deficits and reverses epigenetic modification of chromatin remodeling factors related to adolescent nicotine exposure.

Earlier initiation of smoking correlates with higher risk of nicotine dependence, mental health problems, and cognitive impairments. Additionally, exposure to nicotine and/or tobacco smoke during critical developmental periods is associated with lasting epigenetic modifications and altered gene expression. This study examined whether adolescent nicotine exposure alters adult hippocampus-dependent learning, involving persistent changes in hippocampal DNA methylation and if choline, a dietary methyl donor, would reverse and mitigate these alterations.

Lorcaserin Suppresses Oxycodone Self-Administration and Relapse Vulnerability in Rats.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a major public health problem. High relapse rates and poor treatment retention continue to pose major challenges in OUD treatment. Of the abused opioids, oxycodone is well described to maintain self-administration and evoke the durable conditioned responses ("cue reactivity") that result from pairing of opioid-related stimuli (e.

Long-term effects of chronic nicotine on emotional and cognitive behaviors and hippocampus cell morphology in mice: comparisons of adult and adolescent nicotine exposure.

Nicotine dependence is associated with increased risk for emotional, cognitive and neurological impairments later in life. This study investigated the long-term effects of nicotine exposure during adolescence and adulthood on measures of depression, anxiety, learning and hippocampal pyramidal cell morphology. Mice (C57BL/6J) received saline or nicotine for 12 days via pumps implanted on postnatal day 32 (adolescent) or 54 (adults).

Chronic Nicotine Treatment During Adolescence Attenuates the Effects of Acute Nicotine in Adult Contextual Fear Learning.

Introduction: Adolescent onset of nicotine abuse is correlated with worse chances at successful abstinence in adulthood. One reason for this may be due to enduring learning deficits resulting from nicotine use during adolescence. Previous work has indicated that chronic nicotine administration beginning in late adolescence (PND38) caused learning deficits in contextual fear when tested in adulthood.