Cigarette smoking remains a leading cause of preventable disease and death worldwide. Due to the devastating negative health effects of smoking, many users attempt to quit, but few are successful in the long-term. Thus, there is a critical need for novel therapeutic approaches. In these investigations, we sought to examine whether cannabidiol (CBD) has the potential to be repurposed as a nicotine cessation therapeutic. In the first study, male and female mice were trained to respond for intravenous nicotine infusions at either a low or moderate nicotine dose and then were pretreated with CBD prior to their drug-taking session. We found that CBD produced a significant decrease in the number of nicotine rewards earned, and this effect was evidenced across CBD doses and with both the low and moderate levels of nicotine intake. These effects on drug intake were not due to general motor-related effects, since mice self-administering food pellets did not alter their behavior with CBD administration. The potential effects of CBD in mitigating nicotine withdrawal symptoms were then investigated. We found that CBD attenuated the somatic signs of nicotine withdrawal and prevented nicotine's hyperalgesia-inducing effects. Taken together, these results demonstrate that modulation of cannabinoid signaling may be a viable therapeutic option as a smoking cessation aid.

吸烟仍然是全世界可预防疾病和死亡的主要原因。由于吸烟对健康造成毁灭性的负面影响，许多使用者试图戒烟，但很少有人能长期成功。因此，迫切需要新的治疗方法。在这些研究中，我们试图研究大麻二酚 (CBD) 是否有可能重新用作尼古丁戒烟治疗剂。在第一项研究中，雄性和雌性小鼠接受训练，以对低或中等尼古丁剂量的静脉尼古丁输注做出反应，然后在服药前接受 CBD 预处理。我们发现 CBD 使获得的尼古丁奖励数量显着减少，这种效应在 CBD 剂量以及低水平和中等水平的尼古丁摄入量中都得到了证明。这些对药物摄入的影响并不是由于一般运动相关的影响，因为小鼠自行施用食物颗粒并没有改变 CBD 施用的行为。然后研究了 CBD 在减轻尼古丁戒断症状方面的潜在作用。我们发现 CBD 减轻了尼古丁戒断的躯体症状，并防止尼古丁引起的痛觉过敏作用。综上所述，这些结果表明，调节大麻素信号传导可能是一种可行的戒烟辅助治疗选择。