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$70,000 grant allows for continued rat research
Psychology professor Ari Kirshenbaum and student test rodents to find cure for nicotine dependence
By Jade Csizmesia
Staff Writer
Photo by Ali Destrempe
The rats in the laboratory are used to test nicotine's effect on behavior.
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This summer, St. Michael’s psychology professor Ari Kirshenbaum and junior psychology major Seth Brown will continue their rat research in an attempt to find a drug that can cure nicotine dependence.
Kirshenbaum and Brown received a $70,000 grant from the Vermont Genetics Network, a program of the National Institute of Health, Kirshenbaum said.
The rats, which they get from Charles River Laboratory in Canada, are trained for about one month before any nicotine is injected, Brown said.
After they are trained, the rats are given a test of pressing a button to receive a small dose of sugar water. If the rat can wait 30 seconds to respond again, it is rewarded with a treat, Brown said.
The more nicotine the rats are given, the less they can withhold for a second response, Kirshenbaum said.
“What we’re demonstrating is the huge power nicotine has to produce impulsive behavior,” he said.
The rats are injected with nicotine in the back of their necks because the located there lacks pain receptors, Brown said.
None of the rats are harmed in the laboratory, Kirshenbaum said.
The rats become accustomed to the injections, Brown said.
“We give them injections, but after a while they actually seem to like it,” Brown said.
The rats are injected with 0.03 milligrams of nicotine per kilogram of body weight, which is less nicotine than is administered in a nicotine patch.
Sam Nikula, a senior at St. Michael’s, has mixed feelings about the rat testing lab.
“I think it’s ethical if it doesn’t kill the rats and if the study is beneficial to human kind,” Nikula said.
Animals provide the best model for testing, Kirshenbaum said.
“The only way to understand the real psychological and physiological processes involved in nicotine dependence is to study them in an animal model,” Kirshenbaum said. “In order to establish a good experimental control we would have to give nicotine to a group of people in a controlled way, and that is just unethical.”
When Kirshenbaum is done with the rats, they are used for the college psychology department, he said.
The rats are then sent to the University of Vermont where they are used in its neuroscience program, Kirshenbaum said.
Kirshenbaum said he wishes he could find homes for the rats with students, but animals are not allowed in residence halls.
Last summer, Kirshenbaum and Brown worked in the laboratory researching the effects of nicotine. Brown found repeated nicotine exposure increases impulsive behavior the more the rats were exposed to it, Kirshenbaum said.
Photo by Ali Destrempe
From left to right, sophomore Ryan Collins, junior Seth Brown and psychology professor Ari Kirshenbaum stand in the college's rat lab.
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As a result of this, the rats’ ability to wait for a second sugar reward for 30 seconds decreased, Brown said.
“Last summer we found that nicotine produces sensitization,” Kirshenbaum said. “We think that this sensitization of impulsive behavior might be an obstacle to successful smoking cessation for people to quit smoking.”
If nicotine is linked to impulsive behavior, then people are more likely to smoke in a phase of abstinence, Kirshenbaum said. If they have an urge to use, then they will begin to use it again, he said.
This summer Brown and Kirshenbaum will work with mecamylamine, a nicotine blocker that may help people overcome their tobacco dependence, Kirshenbaum said.
They want to find out the effect of nicotine on rats’ brains because it is similar to what happens to humans’ brains, Kirshenbaum said. |
Their research helps them in understanding the effects of other drugs, he said.
“We’re also interested in other second motor stimulants,” Kirshenbaum said. “So studying nicotine also gives us the opportunity to understand the effects of other drugs, like Adderall and Ritalin, which are widely used on this campus.”
Senior Sarah Schwarz, a psychology major, developed her senior thesis in the laboratory with Kirshenbaum’s help, she said.
Her paper is about chronic nicotine administration and acute dependence impulsivity, which also deals with rats and nicotine, Schwarz said.
She received a $950 Psi Chi grant for part of her research, Schwarz said.
Schwarz’ research is still in progress, but she too has found that nicotine reduces rats’ ability to withhold their response, she said.
She and Kirshenbaum were looking to develop a new rat behavior model for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Schwarz said.
Since the beginning of the semester, Schwarz has been working 30 hours a week in the lab.
“I think everything we did in there was a learning process,” Schwarz said.
Brown, who is the president of the Psychology Club, has worked with Kirshenbaum for a little over a year, he said.
Kirshenbaum approached Brown his sophomore year and talked about the possibility of getting a grant and doing research over the summer, Brown said.
Brown worked four to five hours seven days a week in the lab last summer, he said.
They are looking to publish their results in a journal, which Brown is excited about because not many undergraduates have that opportunity, he said.
“I really enjoyed the idea of actually being able to do research and get involved with something that not many students are able to do,” Brown said.
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