Nicotine Addiction is a chronic relapsing disorder. Relapse risk persists despite years of abstinence. Drug-associated cues have been demonstrated to induce craving and provoke relapse. Surprisingly, in human smokers, craving for nicotine increases or “incubates” with longer abstinence durations, a phenomenon that may explain persistent relapse liability. This incubation phenomenon also presents in animals trained to intravenously self-administer nicotine though the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Two proteins, ERK (Extra-cellular signal Regulated Kinase) and CREB (cAMP Response Element Binding protein) play important roles in learning, memory, and numerous aspects of drug addiction. We therefore examined whether changes in these proteins are associated with incubation of craving for nicotine in rats. We found increased nicotine-seeking behaviour after 14 days of abstinence (compared to 1 day) along with elevated ERK and CREB activity in the Accumbens brain region suggesting that these proteins may be involved in the incubation phenomenon.

Nicotine Addiction is a chronic relapsing disorder. Relapse risk persists despite years of abstinence. Drug-associated cues have been demonstrated to induce craving and provoke relapse. Surprisingly, in human smokers, craving for nicotine increases or “incubates” with longer abstinence durations, a phenomenon that may explain persistent relapse liability. This incubation phenomenon also presents in animals trained to intravenously self-administer nicotine though the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Two proteins, ERK (Extra-cellular signal Regulated Kinase) and CREB (cAMP Response Element Binding protein) play important roles in learning, memory, and numerous aspects of drug addiction. We therefore examined whether changes in these proteins are associated with incubation of craving for nicotine in rats. We found increased nicotine-seeking behaviour after 14 days of abstinence (compared to 1 day) along with elevated ERK and CREB activity in the Accumbens brain region suggesting that these proteins may be involved in the incubation phenomenon.