Tobacco use remains a major public health and economic concern, particularly in women who are more vulnerable to the long-term health consequences of smoking than men. Despite the magnitude of the problem, there is a fundamental knowledge gap in our understanding of the mechanisms that promote tobacco use in females. If this knowledge gap is not filled, then reducing tobacco use and developing specialized medications for female smokers will remain largely incomprehensible. The long-term goal of our research program is to identify the mechanisms that mediate tobacco use among different clinical populations that are uniquely susceptible to this problem. The objective of this renewal is to determine the neural mechanisms that promote tobacco use in females. The central hypothesis is that females are more susceptible to tobacco use than males because of stronger rewarding effects of nicotine and heightened anxiety produced by withdrawal from this drug. Our mechanistic hypothesis is that estradiol (E2) promotes the rewarding effects of nicotine and magnifies the stress produced by nicotine withdrawal in females. More specifically, we postulate that sex differences in response to nicotine are modulated within the neural circuits of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), where dopamine is increased following nicotine administration and decreased during withdrawal from this drug. Thus, females experience greater rewarding effects of nicotine in the presence of E2, which promotes dopamine release in the NAcc. Following repeated nicotine exposure, opponent processes develop to counteract the chronic over-activation of dopamine release. We suggest that the emergence of these opponent processes is evident during withdrawal from chronic nicotine as an increase in the stress hormone, corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) in the NAcc. This increase in CRF levels enhances the inhibitory tone in the NAcc, which results in a decrease in dopamine release during nicotine withdrawal. Thus, females experience greater anxiety during nicotine withdrawal in the presence of E2, which promotes the recruitment of opponent stress systems that suppress dopamine release in the NAcc. The proposed studies reflect a multi- disciplinary approach involving neurochemical, behavioral, and gene transfer techniques to compare sex differences in the rewarding effects of nicotine (Aim 1) and the aversive states produced by withdrawal (Aim 2) because both of these factors are believed to promote tobacco use in females. The approach to studying sex differences involves comparisons of male, female, and OVX female rats. If the removal of ovarian hormones reverses the proposed measures in females, then the role of E2 will be assessed in OVX rats that will receive E2 supplementation and will be tested following E2 or vehicle administration. At the completion of this project, our findings will help us develop a unifying hypothesis regarding the factors that promote tobacco use in females. This exemplifies the significance of this research because a better understanding of the mechanisms that fuel tobacco use in females will lead to more effective treatments to reduce health disparities in women.

Public Health Relevance

The proposed research is relevant to public health because our findings will be an important step toward elucidating the neural substrates that promote addiction pathology in women. Thus, our studies are relevant to the mission of NIH to support research aimed at reducing the burden of tobacco abuse, especially in women who are most vulnerable to the long-term effects of tobacco use.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01DA021274-08
Application #
8728374
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1)
Program Officer
Lynch, Minda
Project Start
2006-04-01
Project End
2019-04-30
Budget Start
2014-05-01
Budget End
2015-04-30
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Texas El Paso
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
City
El Paso
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
79968
Carcoba, Luis M; Flores, Rodolfo J; Natividad, Luis A et al. (2017) Amino acid modulation of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens mediates sex differences in nicotine withdrawal. Addict Biol :
Pipkin, Joseph A; Cruz, Bryan; Flores, Rodolfo J et al. (2017) Both nicotine reward and withdrawal are enhanced in a rodent model of diabetes. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 234:1615-1622
Flores, Rodolfo J; Uribe, Kevin P; Swalve, Natashia et al. (2017) Sex differences in nicotine intravenous self-administration: A meta-analytic review. Physiol Behav :
O'Dell, Laura E; Nazarian, Arbi (2016) Enhanced vulnerability to tobacco use in persons with diabetes: A behavioral and neurobiological framework. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 65:288-96
D'Arcy, Christina; Luevano, Joe E; Miranda-Arango, Manuel et al. (2016) Extended access to methamphetamine self-administration up-regulates dopamine transporter levels 72 hours after withdrawal in rats. Behav Brain Res 296:125-128
Torres, Oscar V; O'Dell, Laura E (2016) Stress is a principal factor that promotes tobacco use in females. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 65:260-8
Flores, Rodolfo J; Pipkin, Joseph A; Uribe, Kevin P et al. (2016) Estradiol promotes the rewarding effects of nicotine in female rats. Behav Brain Res 307:258-63
Torres, Oscar V; Pipkin, Joseph A; Ferree, Patrick et al. (2015) Nicotine withdrawal increases stress-associated genes in the nucleus accumbens of female rats in a hormone-dependent manner. Nicotine Tob Res 17:422-30
Torres, Oscar V; Walker, Ellen M; Beas, Blanca S et al. (2014) Female rats display enhanced rewarding effects of ethanol that are hormone dependent. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 38:108-15
O'Dell, Laura E; Torres, Oscar V (2014) A mechanistic hypothesis of the factors that enhance vulnerability to nicotine use in females. Neuropharmacology 76 Pt B:566-80

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