ArticlePharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior2018
Menthol facilitates dopamine-releasing effect of nicotine in rat nucleus accumbens.
Article in Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Acute effects of inhaled menthol on cognitive effects of intravenous nicotine among young adult cigarette smokers.Addictive behaviors · 2021Trial
- Synthetic cooling agents enhance nicotine reinforcement and mesolimbic dopamine signaling.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Menthol Cigarette Use in US Pregnancies: Prevalence, Racial and Ethnic Disparities, and Associated Characteristics from the 2010-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025Article
- Gender Differences in Quit Rates in a Tobacco Cessation Program: In Search of Demographic, Socioeconomic, Health, or Behavioral Explanatory Mechanisms.Journal of biomedical and life sciences · 2025Article
- Lower Successful Quit Rate of Menthol Tobacco Users in a Tobacco Cessation Program: An Explanatory Analysis in Search of Potential Mechanisms.Global journal of cardiovascular diseases · 2025Article
- Stimulus mediation, specificity and impact of menthol in rats trained to discriminate puffs of nicotine e-cigarette aerosol from nicotine-free aerosol.Psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- The nucleus accumbens in reward and aversion processing: insights and implications.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Review
- Social, clinical, and policy implications of ultra-processed food addiction.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023Article
- Pharmacokinetic differences in nicotine and nicotine salts mediate reinforcement-related behavior: an animal model study.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- A high-fat diet has sex-specific effects on nicotine vapor self-administration in mice.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2022Article
- Animal Models to Investigate the Impact of Flavors on Nicotine Addiction and Dependence.Current neuropharmacology · 2022Review
- Tobacco and ADHD: A Role of MAO-Inhibition in Nicotine Dependence and Alleviation of ADHD Symptoms.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Review
- Review of industry reports on EU priority tobacco additives part A: Main outcomes and conclusions.Tobacco prevention & cessation · 2022Review
- Novel Putative Positive Modulators of α4β2 nAChRs Potentiate Nicotine Reward-Related Behavior.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Flavor additives facilitate oral self-administration of nicotine solution in mice.Psychopharmacology · 2021Article
- K48-Linked Ubiquitination Contributes to Nicotine-Augmented Bone Marrow-Derived Dendritic-Cell-Mediated Adaptive Immunity.Vaccines · 2021Article
- Article
- High Rates of Menthol Cigarette Use Among Pregnant Smokers: Preliminary Findings and Call for Future Research.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2020Article
- The Impact of Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) Flavors on Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Nicotine Addiction-Related Behaviors.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Menthol blunts the interoceptive discriminative stimulus effects of nicotine in female but not male rats.Psychopharmacology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Menthol is a significant flavoring additive in tobacco products. Accumulating clinical evidence suggests that menthol may promote tobacco smoking and nicotine dependence. Our previous studies demonstrated that menthol enhanced nicotine reinforcement in rats. However, it is unclear whether menthol interacts with nicotine at the neurochemical level. The present study used intracranial microdialysis to examine whether and the ways in which menthol affects nicotine-induced dopamine release in rats in the nucleus accumbens core (NAc), a terminal field of brain reward circuitry. To make comparisons with our previous work that showed an enhancing effect of menthol on nicotine self-administration behavior, male Sprague-Dawley rats were first trained in 20 daily 1-h sessions to press a lever for intravenous nicotine self-administration (15 μg/kg/infusion). Dopamine levels were then measured in the right NAc using intracranial microdialysis coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography. Five minutes before microdialysis, the rats received an intraperitoneal injection of menthol (0, 1, 2.5, and 5 mg/kg), a subcutaneous injection of nicotine (0.2 mg/kg or its vehicle), or both. Menthol alone did not affect dopamine levels in dialysates, whereas nicotine alone elevated dopamine levels. Combined nicotine and menthol administration significantly increased dopamine levels compared with nicotine alone. These data indicate a facilitating effect of menthol on nicotine-induced dopamine release in the NAc. These findings shed light on our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie the menthol-induced enhancement of nicotine reinforcement.
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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.