Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Commons^™

Sex Differences And Neuroimmune Effects Of Microglial Response In The Mesolimbic Reward Pathway In Nicotine Substance Use Disorder, Erin Leigh Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

Smoking remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, with less than 5% of smokers attempting to quit succeeding. This is due to the unpleasant withdrawal symptomology, which includes affective symptoms, such as irritability, weight gain, anxiety, and severe craving among others, as well as the cognitive effects, such as difficulty concentrating. This low smoking cessation success rate is also thought to be due to the long-lasting sensitization of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) leading to long-term neuroadaptations in the brain’s reward system and alterations in synaptic plasticity that occur following chronic nicotine exposure and withdrawal. Glial …

Glia Responsivity In Nicotine Dependence, Adewale Oluwamuyiwa Adeluyi

Theses and Dissertations

Neurons are the primary research target in the exploration and development of novel smoking cessation pharmacotherapies over the years. These research efforts have led to the discovery and development of three FDA-approved smoking cessation aids – nicotine replacement therapy, varenicline, and bupropion, each of which have quantifiable success as smoking cessation aids. However, relapse is still very common and smoking cessation is successful in less than 5% of quit attempts, making paramount the development of novel therapeutics. One untapped therapeutic target are glia, particularly, astrocytes and microglia, which are active participants in the neuroplastic events underlying drug addiction.

First, we …