(Press-News.org)
Nicotine addiction remains one of the most persistent public health challenges worldwide, driven by changes in the brain that reinforce repeated use and make quitting extremely difficult. For decades, scientists have focused primarily on neurons to explain how these changes occur. But growing evidence suggests that other brain cells may play a far more active role in shaping addictive behavior than previously thought.
Building on this shift in understanding, a team of researchers led by Professor Eun Sang Choe from the Department of Biological Sciences, Pusan National University, Republic of Korea, has uncovered how astrocytes actively contribute to nicotine-induced brain changes, revealing a previously overlooked mechanism involving astrocytic glutamine synthetase (GS). GS is an essential enzyme for regulating glutamate, the brain’s primary excitatory neurotransmitter. The study was published online in the journal of Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B on 25 September 2025.
“Most of the studies on nicotine addiction traditionally focus on neurons, while neglecting the role of glial cells. Our innovative study demonstrates that astrocytes interact with neurons within the brain's reward system to regulate nicotine-dependent behavior, advancing the current understanding of nicotine addiction,” says Prof. Choe.
In this study, researchers repeatedly injected rat models with nicotine and found that nicotine exposure stimulated α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on astrocytes of the caudate and putamen region of brain, initiating a surge in intracellular calcium. This rise in calcium led to activation of phosphorylated c-Jun N-terminal kinase (pJNK), a signaling molecule known to respond to cellular stress and drug exposure. Once activated, JNK further interacted with the metabotropic glutamate receptor 1a (mGluR1a), boosting GS activity and activating the glutamate-glutamine pathway, leading to enhanced locomotor sensitization.
A custom-designed inhibitory peptide was used to block the interaction between pJNK and mGluR1a. When this peptide was administered directly into the caudate and putamen of rats repeatedly exposed to nicotine, the usual increase in GS activity was significantly reduced. Behaviorally, this intervention dampened locomotor sensitization, demonstrating that astrocytic signaling is a key driver of nicotine-induced changes in the brain.
These findings open new directions for addiction research by highlighting the importance of neuron and glia communication. Although nicotine dependence is widely recognized as a disorder of disrupted glutamate signaling, this study shows that astrocytes participate in the molecular processes that reinforce repeated nicotine use. While the work is preclinical, the implications for long-term research are significant.
“While clinical translation of this research will take time and direct human application is uncertain, this work deepens our understanding of nicotine addiction, paving the way for development of therapeutic strategies ultimately supporting smoking-cessation efforts,” concludes Prof. Choe.
***
About Pusan National University
Pusan National University, located in Busan, South Korea, was founded in 1946 and is now the No. 1 national university of South Korea in research and educational competency. The multi-campus university also has other smaller campuses in Yangsan, Miryang, and Ami. The university prides itself on the principles of truth, freedom, and service and has approximately 30,000 students, 1,200 professors, and 750 faculty members. The university comprises 14 colleges (schools) and one independent division, with 103 departments in all.
Website: https://www.pusan.ac.kr/eng/Main.do
About the author
Dr. Eun Sang Choe is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Pusan National University. His research group is investigating mechanisms underlying nicotine dependence in the glutamatergic neurotransmission of the forebrain. Before coming to Pusan National University, he completed the postdoctoral training at Ann M. Graybiel’s lab at MIT and John Q. Wang’s lab at UMKC School of Pharmacy. In 2000, he received a PhD in Anatomy from East Carolina University School of Medicine.
ORCID id: 0000-0001-5868-7747
END
A study led by researchers at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute advances one of the most significant milestones in breast cancer treatment, making immunotherapy effective against the most common tumor type, estrogen receptor-positive or luminal breast cancer. This subtype accounts for 70% of breast cancer cases, and despite effective treatments, it causes the highest mortality in total cases. Additionally, immunotherapy is not effective or approved because it shows no immune system response in these tumors, ...
CHICAGO – Long-term exposure to common air pollutants is associated with more advanced coronary artery disease—with notable differences between women and men—according to a large-scale study of more than 11,000 adults being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
The findings show that even levels of pollution below or near regulatory standards and typical urban exposures are associated with early signs of heart disease—often before symptoms appear—and underscore the importance of improving air quality to reduce cardiovascular ...
Kyoto, Japan -- "Why are we here?" is humanity's most fundamental and persistent question. Tracing the origins of the elements is a direct attempt to answer this at its deepest level. We know many elements are created inside stars and supernovae, which then cast them out into the universe, yet the origins of some key elements has remained a mystery.
Chlorine and potassium, both odd-Z elements -- possessing an odd number of protons -- are essential to life and planet formation. According to current theoretical models, stars ...
The choreographed movements that cells perform to form complex biological shapes, like our hands, have fascinated scientists for centuries. Now, researchers at EMBL Barcelona have launched LimbNET, an open-access online platform that allows scientists to directly choreograph this dance by computationally simulating how genes guide these intricate growth processes. Their work has recently been published in the journal Molecular Systems Biology.
LimbNET is much more than a simple data repository. It is a new type of platform allowing ...
A research team led by Ryo Shimano of the University of Tokyo has successfully visualized two distinct mechanisms through which up and down spins, inherent properties of electrons, switch in an antiferromagnet, a material in which spin alignments cancel each other out. One of the visualized mechanisms provides a working principle for developing ultrafast, non-volatile magnetic memory and logic devices, which could be much faster than today’s technologies. The findings are published in the journal Nature Materials.
Paper slips with holes, small metal rods, vacuum tubes, and transistors: these are technologies that have ...
Growing energy demand means the U.S. will almost certainly have to expand its electricity grid in coming years. What’s the best way to do this? A new study by MIT researchers examines legislation introduced in Congress and identifies relative tradeoffs involving reliability, cost, and emissions, depending on the proposed approach.
The researchers evaluated two policy approaches to expanding the U.S. electricity grid: One would concentrate on regions with more renewable energy sources, and the other would create more interconnections across the country. For instance, some of the best untapped wind-power resources in the U.S. lie ...
A recently published article in the journal BioScience has revealed a surprising opportunity for conserving threatened species: sports teams and their branding.
The research, led by Dr. Ugo Arbieu of Université Paris-Saclay in France, analyzed 727 sporting organizations across 50 countries and 10 team sports. The authors found that "threatened species and species with a declining population trend are more represented than other species, with differences across regions."
Arbieu and colleagues explain that "given the ongoing global biodiversity crisis and the importance of sport in modern societies, representations ...
Media Contact:
John Dudley
(814) 490-3290 (cell)
jjdudley@usf.edu
TAMPA, Fla. (Dec. 2, 2025) – A new study led by researchers at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science has found that certain populations of the seaweed sargassum have experienced a significant decline over the past decade, even as increased abundance of sargassum in the tropical Atlantic has caused large mats of the seaweed to inundate beaches across the Caribbean and Gulf regions.
The abundance of sargassum in the Atlantic’s ...
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is invaluable in the medical world. But despite all the good it does, there is room for improvement. One way to enhance the sensitivity of MRI is called dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP), where target molecules for imaging are modified so they form clearer images when scanned with an MRI machine. But this technique requires some special crystalline materials mixed with polarizing agents which are difficult to create. For the first time, researchers including those from the University of Tokyo demonstrate the use of molecules called fullerenes as polarizing agents. Their new method can make DNP targets sufficient to yield far greater clarity when ...
Addressing Current Limitations in Spatial Omics
Existing tools for spatial proteomics often have constraints. Many are not equipped to predict multiple localizations for individual proteins or to quantify across different cellular compartments. In addition, their use frequently requires programming knowledge and lacks accessible interfaces, which can limit broader application. Spatial lipidomics has remained challenging due to the absence of reliable markers for lipid localization.
Introducing a Tool for Integrated Spatial Proteomics and Lipidomics
C-COMPASS was developed to address these methodological gaps. The software uses neural networks to predict multiple subcellular ...
