Nicotine-like discriminative stimulus effects of bupropion in rats.
Bupropion, a tobacco-cessation product, shares discriminative stimulus effects with cocaine and methamphetamine. The discriminative stimulus effects of these drugs, in turn, overlap with those of nicotine. This study investigated the overlap in discriminative stimulus effects of bupropion and nicotine. Rats were trained to discriminate 0.4 mg/kg (-)-nicotine from saline in 2-lever drug discrimination. Both nicotine and bupropion substituted for nicotine; however, nicotine's effects were blocked by the nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine, whereas those of bupropion were not. These results suggest that bupropion may be producing its nicotine-like discriminative stimulus effects through a different mechanism than nicotine. Given bupropion's shared pharmacology with dopamine transport inhibitors, these effects may be produced in part through bupropion's actions on dopaminergic neurotransmission.
Wiley
Jenny L
JL
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond 23298-0613, USA. jwiley@hsc.vcu.edu
Lavecchia
Kari L
KL
Martin
Billy R
BR
Damaj
M Imad
MI
D000818:Animals; D016642:Bupropion / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects*; D018765:Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D008297:Male; D008464:Mecamylamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018733:Nicotinic Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans
D018765:Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists; D018733:Nicotinic Antagonists; D016642:Bupropion; D008464:Mecamylamine; D009538:Nicotine