• Oné R Pagán, Amanda L Rowlands, Angela L Fattore, Tamara Coudron, Kimberly R Urban, Apurva H Bidja, and Vesna A Eterović.
• Department of Biology, West Chester University, 750 S. Church Street, West Chester, PA 19383-2112, United States. opagan@wcupa.edu
• Eur. J. Pharmacol. 2009 Aug 1; 615 (1-3): 118-24.

AbstractUsing an adaptation of published behavioral protocols, we determined that acute exposure to the cholinergic compounds nicotine and carbamylcholine decreased planarian motility in a concentration-dependent manner. A tobacco cembranoid (1S,2E,4R,6R,7E,11E)-cembra-2,7,11-triene-4,6-diol (4R-cembranoid), also decreased planarian motility. Experiments in the presence of 1 microM 4R-cembranoid did increase the IC50 for nicotine- but not carbamylcholine-induced decrease in planarian motility. When planarians were exposed for 24 h to either nicotine or carbamylcholine at concentrations near their respective IC50 values and then transferred to plain media, nicotine-exposed, but not carbamylcholine- or cembranoid-exposed worms displayed withdrawal-like distress behaviors. In experiments where planarians were pre-exposed to 100 microM nicotine for 24 h in the presence of 1 microM 4R-cembranoid, the withdrawal-like effects were significantly reduced. These results indicate that the 4R-cembranoid might have valuable applications for tobacco abuse research. This experimental approach using planarians is useful for the initial screening of compounds relevant to drug abuse and dependence.

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