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Sex Differences in the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor System of Rodents: Impacts on Nicotine and Alcohol Reward Behaviors

Alcohol and nicotine are the two most widely used and misused drugs around the world, and co-consumption of both substances is highly prevalent. Multiple lines of evidence show a profound effect of sex in many aspects of alcohol and nicotine reward, with women having more difficulty quitting smoking...

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Autores principales: Moen, Janna K., Lee, Anna M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8490611/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34621155
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.745783
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author Moen, Janna K.
Lee, Anna M.
author_facet Moen, Janna K.
Lee, Anna M.
author_sort Moen, Janna K.
collection PubMed
description Alcohol and nicotine are the two most widely used and misused drugs around the world, and co-consumption of both substances is highly prevalent. Multiple lines of evidence show a profound effect of sex in many aspects of alcohol and nicotine reward, with women having more difficulty quitting smoking and showing a faster progression toward developing alcohol use disorder compared with men. Both alcohol and nicotine require neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) to elicit rewarding effects within the mesolimbic system, representing a shared molecular pathway that likely contributes to the frequent comorbidity of alcohol and nicotine dependence. However, the majority of preclinical studies on the mechanisms of alcohol and nicotine reward behaviors utilize only male rodents, and thus our understanding of alcohol and nicotine neuropharmacology relies heavily on male data. As preclinical research informs the development and refinement of therapies to help patients reduce drug consumption, it is critical to understand the way biological sex and sex hormones influence the rewarding properties of alcohol and nicotine. In this review, we summarize what is known about sex differences in rodent models of alcohol and nicotine reward behaviors with a focus on neuronal nAChRs, highlighting exciting areas for future research. Additionally, we discuss the way circulating sex hormones may interact with neuronal nAChRs to influence reward-related behavior.
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spelling pubmed-84906112021-10-06 Sex Differences in the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor System of Rodents: Impacts on Nicotine and Alcohol Reward Behaviors Moen, Janna K. Lee, Anna M. Front Neurosci Neuroscience Alcohol and nicotine are the two most widely used and misused drugs around the world, and co-consumption of both substances is highly prevalent. Multiple lines of evidence show a profound effect of sex in many aspects of alcohol and nicotine reward, with women having more difficulty quitting smoking and showing a faster progression toward developing alcohol use disorder compared with men. Both alcohol and nicotine require neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) to elicit rewarding effects within the mesolimbic system, representing a shared molecular pathway that likely contributes to the frequent comorbidity of alcohol and nicotine dependence. However, the majority of preclinical studies on the mechanisms of alcohol and nicotine reward behaviors utilize only male rodents, and thus our understanding of alcohol and nicotine neuropharmacology relies heavily on male data. As preclinical research informs the development and refinement of therapies to help patients reduce drug consumption, it is critical to understand the way biological sex and sex hormones influence the rewarding properties of alcohol and nicotine. In this review, we summarize what is known about sex differences in rodent models of alcohol and nicotine reward behaviors with a focus on neuronal nAChRs, highlighting exciting areas for future research. Additionally, we discuss the way circulating sex hormones may interact with neuronal nAChRs to influence reward-related behavior. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-09-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8490611/ /pubmed/34621155 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.745783 Text en Copyright © 2021 Moen and Lee. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Moen, Janna K.
Lee, Anna M.
Sex Differences in the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor System of Rodents: Impacts on Nicotine and Alcohol Reward Behaviors
title Sex Differences in the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor System of Rodents: Impacts on Nicotine and Alcohol Reward Behaviors
title_full Sex Differences in the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor System of Rodents: Impacts on Nicotine and Alcohol Reward Behaviors
title_fullStr Sex Differences in the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor System of Rodents: Impacts on Nicotine and Alcohol Reward Behaviors
title_full_unstemmed Sex Differences in the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor System of Rodents: Impacts on Nicotine and Alcohol Reward Behaviors
title_short Sex Differences in the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor System of Rodents: Impacts on Nicotine and Alcohol Reward Behaviors
title_sort sex differences in the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor system of rodents: impacts on nicotine and alcohol reward behaviors
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8490611/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34621155
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.745783
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