Varenicline but not cotinine increased the value of a visual stimulus reinforcer in rats: No evidence for synergy of the two compounds

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Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, with <7 % of smoking cessation attempts being met with success. Nicotine, the main addictive agent in cigarettes, enhances the reinforcing value of other environmental rewards. Under some circumstances, this reward enhancement maintains nicotine consumption. Varenicline (i.e., cessation aid Chantix™) also has reward-enhancement effects via nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonism (nAChRs) – albeit less robust than nicotine. Cotinine is the major metabolite of nicotine. Recent studies suggest that cotinine is a positive allosteric modulator (PAM) and/or a weak agonist at nAChRs. Thus, cotinine may enhance the behavioral effects of nAChR compounds such as varenicline and/or exert some behavioral effects alone. We used 20 (10M, 10F) Sprague-Dawley rats to assess reward-enhancement within-subjects by examining responding maintained by a reinforcing visual stimulus on a Variable Ratio 2 schedule of reinforcement. To assess the reward-enhancing effects of cotinine, rats received one injection of cotinine (saline, 0.1, 0.3, 1.0, 3.0, 6.0 mg/kg) before each 1 h session. To assess cotinine and varenicline interactions, rats received an injection of cotinine (saline, 0.1, 1.0, or 6.0 mg/kg) and of varenicline (saline, 0.1, 0.3, 1.0, or 3.0 mg/kg) before the session. While we replicated prior work identifying reward-enhancement by 0.1, 0.3, and 1.0 mg/kg varenicline, cotinine alone did not produce reward-enhancement nor augment the reward-enhancing effects of varenicline. Future studies may consider examining the reward-enhancing effects of cotinine with other reinforcers or co-administered with other smoking cessation aids such as bupropion.