Evidences a(CHEBI:nicotine) to p(HBP:"alpha-4 beta-2 nAChR")

The receptor that exhibits the greatest upregulation when exposed to nicotine is the alpha4beta2 nAChR. Receptors assembled from this subunit combination form the highaffinity nicotine binding site (151, 215) and account for the vast majority of upregulated sites in the brain of smokers (55).

transfection of cells with the beta4 and alpha2 nAChR subunits or expression of these in Xenopus oocytes leads to high-affinity nicotine-binding receptors that upregulate in response to prolonged exposure to nicotine (113, 184, 215).

In particular, repeated self-administration produces the upregulation of high-affinity (alpha4beta2) nAChR expression, reduces receptor function due to desensitization and, in most cases, imparts developmental tolerance. Additional changes imposed by nicotine abuse range from reinforcement to physical discomfort associated with withdrawal including craving, anxiety, and a multitude of other less than desirable sensations of autonomic dysfunction when use is stopped.

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If you find BEL Commons useful in your work, please consider citing: Hoyt, C. T., Domingo-Fernández, D., & Hofmann-Apitius, M. (2018). BEL Commons: an environment for exploration and analysis of networks encoded in Biological Expression Language. Database, 2018(3), 1–11.