The time interval between injection of nicotine and tremor initiation: a new index for evaluating nicotine efficacy in rodents

Abstract

Tremor is one of the effects of nicotine as a toxic substance, especially in animal models. The intensity and duration of tremors were used to evaluate the effect of nicotine on locomotor activity in laboratory animals. In our observations, the time interval between nicotine injection and the onset of tremor changed depending on the dose. Therefore, by increasing the dose of nicotine in rats, the time interval of tremor onset was also shortened. These results suggest that the time interval between nicotine injection and the onset of tremors can be used as a complementary index for better evaluation of nicotine-derived motor disturbances.

Keywords:

• Nicotine
• tremor
• rats
• neurotoxicity
• motor disturbance

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Tehran Medical Sciences of Islamic Azad University as a Pharm.D. thesis of Helia Esmaeeli Dehaj. The authors are grateful to the Tehran Medical Sciences of Islamic Azad University for providing the laboratory facility.

Author contributions

Helia Esmaeeli Dehaj: investigation, methodology, and software. Saeideh Maleki Dehnavi: data curation and investigation. Mohadese Zahedi Nejad: investigation and visualization. Saeid Akbarzadeh Kolahi: supervision, validation, and writing – original draft. Amir Hossein Abdolghaffari: validation and formal analysis. Azadeh Khalili: methodology and formal analysis. Roham Mazloom: conceptualization, supervision, and writing – review and editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data used in this study are currently not publicly available but may be shared upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.