N‐acetylcysteine (NAC), a promising glutamatergic therapeutic agent, has shown some clinical efficacy in reducing nicotine use in humans and has been shown to reverse drug‐induced changes in glutamatergic neurophysiology. In rats, nicotine‐seeking behavior is associated with alterations in glutamatergic plasticity within the nucleus accumbens core (NAcore). Specifically, cue‐induced nicotine‐seeking is associated with rapid, transient synaptic plasticity (t‐SP) in glutamatergic synapses on NAcore medium spiny neurons. The goal of the present study was to determine if NAC reduces nicotine‐seeking behavior and reverses reinstatement‐associated NAcore glutamatergic alterations. Rats were extinguished from nicotine self‐administration, followed by subchronic NAC administration (0 or 100 mg/kg/d) for 4 days prior to cue‐induced reinstatement. NAcore synaptic potentiation was measured via dendritic spine morphology and mRNA and protein of relevant glutamatergic genes were quantified. Nicotine‐seeking behavior was not reduced by subchronic NAC treatment. Also, NAcore transcript and protein expression of multiple glutamatergic genes, as well as spine morphological measures, were unaffected by subchronic NAC. Finally, chronic NAC treatment (15 days total) during extinction and prior to reinstatement significantly decreased extinction responding and reduced reinstatement of nicotine‐seeking compared to vehicle. Together, these results suggest that chronic NAC treatment is necessary for its therapeutic efficacy as a treatment strategy for nicotine addiction and relapse.

Women report greater craving during certain phases of the menstrual cycle. As well, research indicates that pharmacotherapies for smoking may be less efficacious in women compared to men, which may be due to interactions with natural fluctuations in ovarian hormone levels. N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) is a glutamatergic compound that has shown some efficacy in treating substance use disorders and aids in the prevention of relapse. However, it is unclear whether NAC has sex-specific effectiveness for nicotine relapse treatment. Given that NAC has shown promise to reduce nicotine reinstatement in preclinical models using male rats, the exploration of potential sex differences in the efficacy of NAC is warranted. Using a rat model, we first investigated the ability of NAC treatment (100 mg/kg, i.p.) during nicotine withdrawal with extinction training to reduce cue-induced nicotine seeking in male and female rats. Next, we assessed whether NAC's effects were estrous-cycle-dependent for female rats. Results show that following NAC treatment during extinction, reinstatement of nicotine seeking was significantly decreased in males but not females, indicating a sex-specific effect of NAC. Furthermore, for females, both vehicle-and NAC-treated groups significantly reinstated nicotine seeking behavior compared to extinction, regardless of estrous cycle phase. These results suggest that NAC is inefficacious in reducing nicotine relapse in females regardless of estrous cycle phase at the dose evaluated here. These collective findings could have important clinical implications for use and efficacy of NAC as a pharmacotherapy for freely-cycling women smokers.

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El ciberacoso se ha convertido en uno de los principales problemas o riesgos en la red para los jóvenes. Los estudios hablan de hasta un 58% de estudiantes afectados por alguna forma de ciberacoso (Yang, Lin, y Chen, 2014). Sin embargo, pocos estudios se han centrado en conocer cómo perciben este problema los profesores, lo que llama la atención teniendo en cuenta que son los principales agentes, con los padres, para identificarlo e intervenir. Por ello, este estudio tiene como objetivo conocer la percepción del profesorado de secundaria en relación con el ciberacoso. Para ello se utilizó un cuestionario en inglés de una investigación previa y se utilizó el método de la doble traducción para su validación. Los resultados muestran que el profesorado subestima este problema. Además, admiten que no son capaces ni de identificar ni manejar los posibles casos de ciberacoso, aunque la mayoría llevaría a cabo alguna acción para detenerlo. Los profesores reclaman formación y una mejor orientación para el manejo de este problema, cuestión relevante que debe ser tenida en cuenta por las administraciones educativas y también por las universidades como responsables de la formación inicial de profesorado.