ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2008
Crucial role of alpha4 and alpha6 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits from ventral tegmental area in systemic nicotine self-administration.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 219 papers.
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Who cites it
219 citing papers in PubMed, 313 citations in OpenAlex.
- Context-tuned strategies for marker selection precision in neuronal studies.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Nicotinic Receptors in the Medial Habenula to Interpeduncular Nucleus Pathway: Modulators of Reward, Aversion and Emotion.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Review
- Article
- α-Conotoxin TxIB Reversed Nicotine-Induced Locomotor Sensitization and Nicotine-Enhanced Dopaminergic Activity in Mice.Marine drugs · 2025Article
- "Unraveling the role ofReceptors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Nicotine and neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors: unraveling the mechanisms of nicotine addiction.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Review
- Expression pattern of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit transcripts in neurons and astrocytes in the ventral tegmental area and locus coeruleus.The European journal of neuroscience · 2024Article
- Enhanced Novel Object Recognition and Spatial Memory in Rats Selectively Bred for High Nicotine Preference.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Dopamine and Norepinephrine Tissue Levels in the Developing Limbic Brain Are Impacted by the HumanInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- The Impact of High or Low Doses of Nicotine in a Mouse Model of Vapor Self-Administration.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2024Article
- Sub-chronic nicotine exposure influences methamphetamine self-administration and dopamine overflow in a sex-and genotype-dependent manner in humanizedFrontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
- The Effects of Nicotine and Cannabinoids on Cytokines.Current pharmaceutical design · 2024Review
- Nicotine addiction: More than just dopamine.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2023Review
- Molecular Determinants of Species Specificity of α-Conotoxin TxIB towards Rat and Human α6/α3β4 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Impact of the gut microbiome on nicotine's motivational effects and glial cells in the ventral tegmental area in male mice.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- β2 nAChR Activation on VTA DA Neurons Is Sufficient for Nicotine Reinforcement in Rats.eNeuro · 2023Article
- Elucidating the reinforcing effects of nicotine: a tribute to Nadia Chaudhri.Psychopharmacology · 2023Review
- Beyond the label: current evidence and future directions for the interrelationship between electronic cigarettes and mental health.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Review
- Sex- and Genotype-Dependent Nicotine-Induced Behaviors in Adolescent Rats with a Human Polymorphism (rs2304297) in the 3'-UTR of theInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Evidence for AlphaThe Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics · 2022Article
159 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The identification of the molecular mechanisms involved in nicotine addiction and its cognitive consequences is a worldwide priority for public health. Novel in vivo paradigms were developed to match this aim. Although the beta2 subunit of the neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) has been shown to play a crucial role in mediating the reinforcement properties of nicotine, little is known about the contribution of the different alpha subunit partners of beta2 (i.e., alpha4 and alpha6), the homo-pentameric alpha7, and the brain areas other than the ventral tegmental area (VTA) involved in nicotine reinforcement. In this study, nicotine (8.7-52.6 microg free base/kg/inf) self-administration was investigated with drug-naive mice deleted (KO) for the beta2, alpha4, alpha6 and alpha7 subunit genes, their wild-type (WT) controls, and KO mice in which the corresponding nAChR subunit was selectively re-expressed using a lentiviral vector (VEC mice). We show that WT mice, beta2-VEC mice with the beta2 subunit re-expressed exclusively in the VTA, alpha4-VEC mice with selective alpha4 re-expression in the VTA, alpha6-VEC mice with selective alpha6 re-expression in the VTA, and alpha7-KO mice promptly self-administer nicotine intravenously, whereas beta2-KO, beta2-VEC in the substantia nigra, alpha4-KO and alpha6-KO mice do not respond to nicotine. We thus define the necessary and sufficient role of alpha4beta2- and alpha6beta2-subunit containing nicotinic receptors (alpha4beta2*- and alpha6beta2*-nAChRs), but not alpha7*-nAChRs, present in cell bodies of the VTA, and their axons, for systemic nicotine reinforcement in drug-naive mice.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.