The Rodent Electronic Nicotine Delivery System: Description and Validation of an Apparatus for Nose-Only E-Cigarette Aerosol Inhalation in Freely Moving Rats.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of death globally and in the U.S. After decades of decline, driven by decreases in combusted tobacco use, nicotine product use has increased due to Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), also known as e-cigarettes or vapes.

Use of the overexpectation effect to reduce conditioned seeking behavior controlled by nicotine.

Nicotine produces robust stimulus effects that can be conditioned to form associations with reinforcing nondrug stimuli. We examine how established associations to the nicotine stimulus may be weakened via the overexpectation effect. In two experiments, we separately conditioned sucrose associations to the interoceptive nicotine stimulus (0.

"A robust and simple catheter connector assembly for long-term self-administration experiments".

Intravenous self-administration in rats is used widely to study the reinforcing effects of drugs and serves as the gold standard for assessing their use and misuse potential. One challenge that researchers often encounter when scaling up experiments is balancing the cost, time investment to construct, and robustness of each implanted catheter. These catheters include multiple components such as surgical meshing and a variety of entry ports designed to facilitate the connection of the rat to a catheter port tethering system.

Patterns of delta 8 THC and cannabis uptake in Nebraska: A cannabis prohibition state.

Background: Following the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, derived psychoactive cannabis products containing delta 8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) have become increasingly popular across the US, particularly in states that lack medical or recreational cannabis programs. Despite this, little is known about patterns of delta 8 THC use.

Methods: A sample of Nebraska residents (a state without legal medical or recreational cannabis) were surveyed to gather data on substance use, including delta 8 THC and cannabis, across the state.

Repeated exposure to physiologically effective doses of contraceptive hormones ethinyl estradiol or levonorgestrel do not alter the reinforcing effects of a brief visual stimulus in ovary-intact rats.

Estradiol and progesterone potentiate and attenuate reward processes, respectively. Despite these well-characterized effects, there is minimal research on the effects of synthetic estrogens (e.g.

Factors associated with gaps in naloxone knowledge: evidence from a 2022 great plains survey.

Background: The rising prevalence of fast-acting opioids in the USA suggests the increased need for non-professional first responder administration of naloxone. Effective administration of naloxone during an overdose requires that bystanders are familiar with, have access to, and know how to use naloxone.

Methods: Drawing on a statewide, address-based sample of Nebraskan adults, we used logistic regression to predict the likelihood of respondents' familiarity with, access to, and competency to administer naloxone.

Varenicline but not cotinine increased the value of a visual stimulus reinforcer in rats: No evidence for synergy of the two compounds.

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, with <7 % of smoking cessation attempts being met with success. Nicotine, the main addictive agent in cigarettes, enhances the reinforcing value of other environmental rewards. Under some circumstances, this reward enhancement maintains nicotine consumption.

Factors Associated with Gaps in Naloxone Knowledge: Evidence from a 2022 Great Plains Survey.

Background: The rising prevalence of fast-acting opioids in the United States suggests the increased need for non-first responder administration of naloxone. Effective administration of naloxone during an overdose requires that bystanders are familiar with, have access to, and know how to use naloxone.

Methods: Drawing on the 2022 Nebraska Annual Social Indicators survey, we analyzed naloxone familiarity, access, and competency to administer among a statewide, address-based sample of Nebraskan adults.

The co-use of nicotine and prescription psychostimulants: A review of their behavioral and neuropharmacological interactions.

Background: Nicotine is commonly co-used with other psychostimulants. These high co-use rates have prompted much research on interactions between nicotine and psychostimulant drugs. These studies range from examination of illicitly used psychostimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine to prescription psychostimulants used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) such as methylphenidate (Ritalin™) and d-amphetamine (active ingredient of Adderall™).

Place conditioning in humans: opportunities for translational research.

Rationale: Translational research, especially research that bridges studies with humans and nonhuman species, is critical to advancing our understanding of human disorders such as addiction. This advancement requires reliable and rigorous models to study the underlying constructs contributing to the maladaptive behavior.

Objective: In this commentary, we address some of the challenges of conducting translational research by examining a single procedure, place conditioning.

Harm reduction in the Heartland: public knowledge and beliefs about naloxone in Nebraska, USA.

Background: Opioid-related overdose deaths have been increasing in the United States (U.S.) in the last twenty years, creating a public health challenge.

Appetitive Pavlovian conditioning of the stimulus effects of nicotine enhances later nicotine self-administration.

Nicotine produces robust stimulus effects that can be conditioned to exert stimulus control over behavior through associative learning. Additionally, nicotine has weak reinforcing effects that are inconsistent with its prevalence of use and the tenacity of nicotine dependence. The present study investigated whether conditioned associations to the nicotine drug stimulus may confer additional reinforcing strength to nicotine that thereby increase its use liability, and presents a new methodological approach to investigating the interaction between the stimulus effects and reinforcing effects of drugs.

Understanding the stimulus effects of nicotine and bupropion in a drug-drug discriminated goal-tracking task.

Rationale: Bupropion is a non-nicotine medication for smoking cessation that has overlapping stimulus effects with nicotine as demonstrated in drug discrimination studies. Whether these shared stimulus effects will alter acquisition or maintenance of a discrimination between nicotine and bupropion is unknown.

Objective: We sought to test this possibility using the drug discriminated goal-tracking (DGT) task and whether discrimination training history affected generalization and substitution tests.

A comprehensive study to delineate the role of an extracellular vesicle-associated microRNA-29a in chronic methamphetamine use disorder.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), which express a repertoire of cargo molecules (cf. proteins, microRNA, lipids, etc.), have been garnering a prominent role in the modulation of several cellular processes.

Investigating sex differences and the effect of drug exposure order in the sensory reward-enhancing effects of nicotine and d-amphetamine alone and in combination.

Nicotine enhances the rewarding effects of other environmental stimuli; this reward-enhancement encourages and maintains nicotine consumption. Nicotine use precedes other psychostimulant use, but receiving a stimulant prescription also predicts future smoking. Previously, no study has investigated effects of drug exposure order in reward-enhancement, nor with nicotine and d-amphetamine.

The Sugars in Alcohol Cocktails Matter.

While sugar consumption and alcohol drinking have traditionally been studied by different basic science fields, most commercially available flavored alcoholic beverages are sweetened with some kind of sugar. The prevailing view is that these sugars potentiate drinking by making the alcohol taste better, particularly for adolescents, overlooking that some central nervous system circuits implicated in alcohol drinking are also sensitive to brain penetrant sugars like glucose. In this Viewpoint, we highlight the need for basic researchers to carefully consider how the sugars mixed with alcoholic beverages may impact the neurochemical and biological mechanisms influencing alcohol drinking and the development of alcohol use disorder.

Reward-enhancing effects of d-amphetamine and its interactions with nicotine were greater in female rats and persisted across schedules of reinforcement.

Nicotine enhances the value of environmental stimuli and rewards, and reward enhancement can maintain nicotine consumption. Stimulants such as d-amphetamine are misused more by women and are commonly co-used with nicotine. d-Amphetamine potentiates nicotine's effects in human and animal research.

Female rats display higher methamphetamine-primed reinstatement and c-Fos immunoreactivity than male rats.

Methamphetamine (meth) dependence is often characterized by persistent and chronic relapse (i.e., return to drug use).

The revised 2019 standards for psychopharmacological training: Model education and training program in psychopharmacology for prescriptive authority.

The American Psychological Association (APA), under the oversight of the Board of Educational Affairs, and the Board of Professional Affairs, is responsible for the education and training of psychologists in prescriptive authority. All APA standards and guidelines are required by Association Rule 30-8.3 to be revised at least every 10 years.

The importance of acquisition learning on nicotine and varenicline drug substitution in a drug-discriminated goal-tracking task.

Nicotine and varenicline (Chantix®; the leading non-nicotine cessation pharmacotherapy) can come to control appetitive behaviors such as goal-tracking. We tested rats (N = 48) in a drug-discriminated goal-tracking (DGT) task where each rat received daily subcutaneous injections of either nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) or saline (0.

Role of Brain Derived Extracellular Vesicles in Decoding Sex Differences Associated with Nicotine Self-Administration.

Smoking remains a significant health and economic concern in the United States. Furthermore, the emerging pattern of nicotine intake between sexes further adds a layer of complexity. Nicotine is a potent psychostimulant with a high addiction liability that can significantly alter brain function.

Menthol blunts the interoceptive discriminative stimulus effects of nicotine in female but not male rats.

Rationale: Menthol is a widely used tobacco constituent that has shown to enhance nicotine's reinforcing effects.

Objective: To determine whether injected menthol also alters nicotine's stimulus effects, we used a drug discrimination task.

Methods: A total of 57 adult Sprague-Dawley rats (28M, 29F) received 20 positive and 20 negative days (intermixed) of discrimination training.

Conditioned enhancement of the nicotine reinforcer.

This study was designed to assess whether nicotine can acquire additional reinforcing properties through associations with other rewards. To this end, rats self-administered nicotine-alone (0.01 mg/kg) or nicotine paired with access to sucrose during the conditioning phase.