Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco as an Outgrowth of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nicotine Addiction: Reflections of the Early Presidents.

Introduction: The Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco began in the United States as a scientific organization "to stimulate the generation and dissemination of new knowledge concerning nicotine and tobacco in all its manifestations." Now in its 30th year, the Society is taking on new challenges in tobacco control, nicotine vaping, product regulation, and public policy.

Aims And Methods: This Review describes the formative years of the Society from the perspective of researchers who were in leadership positions during that time, documenting how biobehavioral and clinical research in the first 10 years was a continuation of the scientific mission of the 1988 United States Surgeon General's Report on Nicotine Addiction and summarizing organizational innovations during each president's term of office.

Cocaine and nicotine research illustrates a range of hypocretin mechanisms in addiction.

Hypocretins (also known as orexins) are neuropeptides synthesized in the lateral hypothalamus and perifornical region and projecting widely throughout the brain. They play an important modulatory role in plasticity related to addictive behavior. Hypocretin signaling to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) promotes synaptic plasticity by potentiating glutamatergic inputs to dopamine neurons and is required for the plasticity induced by stimulant drugs like cocaine.

Nicotine self-administration in the rat: effects of hypocretin antagonists and changes in hypocretin mRNA.

Rationale: The hypocretin (hcrt) system has been implicated in addiction-relevant effects of several drugs, but its role in nicotine dependence has been little studied.

Objectives: These experiments examined the role of the hcrt system in nicotine reinforcement.

Methods: Rats were trained for nicotine self-administration (NSA) on fixed-ratio schedules.

Hypocretin mechanisms in nicotine addiction: evidence and speculation.

Background: The hypocretin/orexin system has been implicated in arousal mechanisms, sleep, and sleep disorders, including narcolepsy, and more recently in drug addiction. Theoretically, hypocretin (hcrt) mechanisms appear to be potential substrates for nicotine addiction: arousal and attentional mechanisms influence use and withdrawal symptoms, and hcrt systems overlap anatomically with a number of brain regions associated with nicotine addiction.

Objective: This review summarizes the studies that have examined hcrt mechanisms in the effects of nicotine and describes hcrt innervation of, and effects in, several brain regions implicated in nicotine addiction.

Neuronal nicotinic receptors as brain targets for pharmacotherapy of drug addiction.

Nicotine addiction and other forms of drug addiction continue to be significant public health problems in the United States and the rest of the world. Accumulated evidence indicates that brain nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are a heterogenous family of ion channels expressed in the various parts of the brain. A growing body of preclinical studies suggests that brain nAChRs are critical targets for the development of pharmacotherapies for nicotine and other drug addictions.