Isradipine inhibits nicotine intravenous self-administration in drug-naive mice

The effect of isradipine, a dihydropyridine calcium antagonist, on intravenous self-administration of nicotine in naive mice has been investigated. When nicotine injections were made contingent upon nose-poke response by naive mice, they increased their rate of nose poking with respect to animals receiving contingent saline injections or yoked control animals receiving noncontingent nicotine injections. Pretreatment of mice with mecamylamine (2.4 mg/kg) inhibited self-administration of nicotine contingent upon a nose-poke response. The same effect was observed with isradipine (0.5-1.0 mg/kg) in a dose-related manner and stereospecifically. These data suggest that isradipine suppresses the reinforcing properties of nicotine and might be useful for treatment of nicotine abuse.