Table 1. Effect of dosing regimen variations on simulated nicotine concentrations in plasma/CSF/ER and on nAChR activation or chaperoning.
Nicotine dose (mg) per cigarette | Total daily cigarettes, intervals | Average [nicotine] in plasma/CSF/ER (nM) | Average nAChR activation on PM | Average activation of nAChR chaperoning in ER |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 12/d, 1 h | 112 | 0.1 | 0.7 |
0.5 | 12/d, 1 h | 56 | 0.05 | 0.55 |
0.3 | 12/d, 1 h | 34 | 0.03 | 0.44 |
0.1 | 12/d, 1 h | 11 | 0.01 | 0.2 |
0.05 | 12/d, 1 h | 6 | 0.006 | 0.13 |
3 | 12/d, 1 h | 321 | 0.23 | 0.83 |
1 | 6/d, 2 h | 65 | 0.06 | 0.6 |
1 | 20/d, 0.8 h | 148* | 0.13* | 0.75* |
Results have been averaged over 12 or 16 h. Asterisk (*) denotes 16-h average. The first row (in bold) presents our definition of a standard habit, plotted in Fig. 8. The following five rows show simulations for increasingly “denicotinized” cigarettes. The row presenting a dose of 3 mg might be appropriate for a schizophrenic’s smoking strategy (Miwa et al., 2011).