Multifactorial Etiology of Adolescent Nicotine Addiction: A Review of the Neurobiology of Nicotine Addiction and Its Implications for Smoking Cessation Pharmacotherapy

Abstract

Nicotine is the primary pharmacologic component of tobacco, and its highly addictive nature is responsible for its widespread use and significant withdrawal effects that result in challenges to smoking cessation therapeutics. Nicotine addiction often begins in adolescence and this is at least partially attributed to the fact that adolescent brain is most susceptible to the neuro-inflammatory effects of nicotine. There is increasing evidence for the involvement of microglial cells, which are the brain's primary homeostatic sensor, in drug dependence and its associated behavioral manifestations particularly in the adolescent brain. A hallmark of neuro-inflammation is microglial activation and activation of microglia by nicotine during adolescent development, which may result in long-term addiction to nicotine. This non-systematic review examines multifactorial etiology of adolescent nicotine addiction, neurobiology of nicotine addiction and the potential mechanisms that underlie the effects of nicotine on inflammatory signaling in the microglia, understanding how nicotine affects the adolescent brain. We speculate, that modulating homeostatic balance in microglia, could have promising therapeutic potential in withdrawal, tolerance, and abstinence-related neural adaptations in nicotine addiction, in the adolescent brain. Further, we discuss nicotine addiction in the context of the sensitization-homeostasis model which provides a theoretical framework for addressing the potential role of microglial homeostasis in neural adaptations underlying nicotine abuse.

Predictores asociados al consumo de tabaco en adolescentes: una revisión sistemática (Predictors associated with adolescent smoking: a systematic review)

“…En otro sentido, tanto la adolescencia temprana (Fierro et al, 2014), como la media (Mahajan et al, 2021), son consideradas factores de riesgo del uso de tabaco (Obaid et al, 2015). Sin embargo, la realización de la práctica deportiva sugiere ser una variable mediadora ya que parece proteger ante dicho consumo y así mejorar la calidad de vida de los jóvenes (Soriano-Sánchez y Jiménez-Vázquez, 2022).…”

“…En ella emerge la personalidad y el ajuste social del ser (Pérez-Fuentes et al, 2019). En este sentido, como expone la literatura reciente, la población adolescente se ha visto relacionada con un mayor consumo de sustancias como el tabaco (Mahajan et al, 2021), convirtiéndose ello en un problema de salud pública (Perry et al, 2020;UNODC, 2019), donde ejerce un papel mediador el contexto individual, social (González-Bautista et al, 2019) y familiar (Barragán et al, 2016).…”

Nicotine addiction – a health problem in adolescents in a neurobiological context

“…NAChRs are primary targets of nicotine, nicotine exerts direct and indirect effects on other receptor systems (e.g., opioid, serotonergic, glutamatergic) that also mediate nicotine-induced behavioral and neural changes in humans. Variation in the genes that code for the drug receptor proteins or that code for metabolic and catabolic enzymes that influence neurotransmitter levels, also represent the candidate genes for nicotine dependence and treatment [36].…”

The experience of nicotine dependence among adolescent smokers

“…Especially those who start smoking from the age of 18 or 20 years [14]. This happens because the brains of adolescents are susceptible to neuroinflammatory as an effect of nicotine [15], hence the effects are the presence of psychological disorders compared to nonsmokers [16]. As consequently, smoking leads to anxiety disorder [17].…”