Rauhut, Anthony S., Stephanie N. Mullins, Linda P. Dwoskin, and Michael T. Bardo. Reboxetine: Attenuation of Intravenous Nicotine Self- Administration in Rats. The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 303, no. 2 (2002): 664-672. doi: https://doi.org/10.1124/jpet.303.2.664

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The ability of reboxetine, a selective inhibitor of the norepinephrine transporter and noncompetitive antagonist at neuronal nicotinic receptors, to alter nicotine self-administration in rats was compared with that of mecamylamine, a classical noncompetitive antagonist at nicotinic receptors. The ability of reboxetine to alter sucrose-maintained responding was also examined to assess the specificity of the effect on nicotine self-administration. Rats were trained on a fixed ratio 5 schedule to self-administer nicotine or to respond for sucrose pellets. Upon reaching a stable baseline, rats were pretreated 15 min before the session with vehicle, reboxetine, reboxetine or mecamylamine. To assess the effect of repeated administration, reboxetine was injected once daily for 14 consecutive sessions before either nicotine self-administration or sucrose-maintained responding. Specificity was further assessed by examining the ability of repeated administration of reboxetine to alter nicotine-induced hyperactivity. The reboxetine-induced decrease in nicotine self-administration and sucrose-maintained responding may be the result of inhibition of norepinephrine transporters and/or neuronal nicotinic receptor function.

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