Beneficial effects of nicotine, cotinine and its metabolites as potential agents for Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, which is characterized by neuroinflammation, dopaminergic neuronal cell death and motor dysfunction, and for which there are no proven effective treatments. The negative correlation between tobacco consumption and PD suggests that tobacco-derived compounds can be beneficial against PD. Nicotine, the more studied alkaloid derived from tobacco, is considered to be responsible for the beneficial behavioral and neurological effects of tobacco use in PD. However, several metabolites of nicotine, such as cotinine, also increase in the brain after nicotine administration. The effect of nicotine and some of its derivatives on dopaminergic neurons viability, neuroinflammation, and motor and memory functions, have been investigated using cellular and rodent models of PD. Current evidence shows that nicotine, and some of its derivatives diminish oxidative stress and neuroinflammation in the brain and improve synaptic plasticity and neuronal survival of dopaminergic neurons. In vivo these effects resulted in improvements in mood, motor skills and memory in subjects suffering from PD pathology. In this review, we discuss the potential benefits of nicotine and its derivatives for treating PD.

Brain Anatomy in Latino Farmworkers Exposed to Pesticides and Nicotine

“…It is possible that nicotine exposure in the farmworkers may be related to reductions in brain iron deposition in the putamen and cerebellum. This is consistent with the data indicating that nicotine is protective against PD [21–27], and that PD patients have increased brain iron accumulation [73–75]. Multiple mechanisms have been proposed for antioxidant effects of nicotine including reduced glutamate release [76], direct binding of iron [77, 78], as well as nicotine-induced increases in ascorbate in the basal ganglia and nucleus accumbens [79].…”

“…Acute exposure to nicotine through a medication or cigarette smoking is known to enhance attention and concentration [18–20]. Long-term smoking has been shown to be protective against Parkinson’s disease (PD), a disease known to be associated with reduced brain dopamine [21–27]. The mechanism underlying this protective effect remains unknown but may be related to nicotine-induced dopamine release [28] or to reduced oxidative stress when nicotine binds free iron [29].…”

Statin therapy prevents the onset of Parkinson disease in patients with diabetes

“…First, the database used in our study did not contain clinical laboratory test values, namely the LDL cholesterol levels, which were shown to be inversely associated with PD . Second, various factors such as the nutrition status (vitamin C intake), nicotine levels, alcohol consumption, and smoking status could affect PD incidence or progression, but these data were not available in our study. However, these confounding factors cannot fully explain the protective effects of statin, because these factors are not related to statin treatment.…”

E‐cigarettes: voltage‐ and concentration‐dependent loss in human lung adenocarcinoma viability

“…Nicotine is still considered a toxic and addictive compound, but it has been shown that it is also a positive cholinergic modulator showing pro‐cognitive, anti‐inflammatory, neuroprotective and antioxidant properties (Barreto, Iarkov, & Moran, ). Interestingly, our results showed significant differences in the viability of A549 cells between PG and PG + nicotine solutions, at a concentration range from 0.125% to 1%, which may be a result of the cytoprotective effect of nicotine.…”