Animal experiment:

Adult (age range 4 to 16 months) female Sprague-Dawley rats are used in this study. One group of rats (N=12) is trained on the radial arm maze test of working and reference memory and undergo tests of an acute dose-response of Anabasine (0.02, 0.2, 1 and 2 mg/kg). Then, two doses of Anabasine (0.2 and 2 mg/kg) are tested alone or in combination with the glutamate NMDA antagonist dizocilpine (0.05 mg/kg). The saline vehicle is used as vehicle control and dizocilpine alone is used as an impaired control. All conditions are given to each rat in a repeated measures counterbalanced design[1].

Anabasine is a nicotinic receptor agonist.

Anabasine significantly reverses the impairment at the 0.2 mg/kg (p<0.05) and 2 mg/kg doses (p<0.025). Anabasine does not have any significant effects on response latency when administered alone. The 0.06 mg/kg Anabasine dose, in fact, significantly (p<0.05) exacerbates the dizocilpine-induced impairment. None of these Anabasine doses affects choice accuracy on their own. Individual dose comparisons show that the 0.06 mg/kg Anabasine dose plus dizocilpine (6.7±2.6) causes a significant (p<0.05) increase in non-response trials compare with dizocilpine alone (2.1±0.8)[1].

[1]. Levin ED, et al. Effects of tobacco smoke constituents, anabasine and anatabine, on memory and attention in female rats. J Psychopharmacol. 2014 Oct;28(10):915-22.