In progress summary of his current study - notably“Safety results show that treatment has been generally well tolerated with no SAEs definitively or probably tied to study participation or investigational product thus far”Â
Nicotine and inflammatory neurological disorders
“Nicotine activates the striatal or mesolimbic dopaminergic system80, and protects against glutamate-induced neurotoxicity in striatal, cortical and mesencephalic neurons, as well as nigrostriatal degeneration in MPTP-treated animals” — of particular interest to me that they mention glutamate toxicity given my GAD65 autoimmunity; says smoking is tied to a higher incidence of MS but there are some other studies that suggest nicotine could be a therapeutic for MS, perhaps it varies based on administration route or other ingredients in cigarettesÂ
Specific to long covid:
Is the post-COVID-19 syndrome a severe impairment of acetylcholine-orchestrated neuromodulation that responds to nicotine administration?
“After a comprehensive review of the published papers, we figured out that nicotine participated in more than 20 diseases by immune regulation. In addition to the most-studied neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease(23), nicotine also played different regulatory roles in ulcerative colitis, arthritis, periodontitis, sepsis, endotoxemia, multiple sclerosis, nasal eosinophilic inflammation, allergy, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, skin inflammation, placental inflammation, pancreatitis, Behçet’s disease, muscle inflammation, viral myocarditis, uveitis, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and so on(Figure 1).”Â
Some of the results are pro-inflammatory, as the title suggests, which often seems dependent on factors like timing and administration route(e.g. rats given nicotine then given arthritis get worse, but rats given arthritis then given nicotine improve) — but a lot of it seems really promising.Â
Immunomodulatory effects of nicotine on interleukin 1β activated human astrocytes and the role of cyclooxygenase 2 in the underlying mechanism
“Activation of the cholinergic system through α7nAChR agonists has been known to suppress inflammation both in the CNS and periphery. In the CNS, earlier experimental data shows that cholinergic activation through nicotine inhibits microglial activation and proinflammatory cytokine release. Here, we report similar anti-inflammatory effects of cholinergic activation on human astrocytes, at least partly mediated through the COX-2 pathway. These results confirm the potential for cholinergic neuroprotection, which is looked upon as a promising therapy for neuroinflammation as well as neurodegenerative diseases and stroke”
Anti-inflammatory effects of nicotine in obesity and ulcerative colitis
“Activation of the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway by low-dose nicotine significantly suppressed inflammation in adipose tissue, an important site in mediating obesity-induced inflammation in genetically obese(db/db) and diet-induced obese(DIO) mice. This was associated with a significant improvement in glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity without changes in body weight.” Huh.
In-vitro immunomodulatory effects of nicotine on Nitric Oxide, interleukin 1β and interleukin 37 production in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMC) from patients with Behçet disease
The Nicotine Test: Patient-led experiments  https://linktr.ee/thenicotinetest
Coverage in Health Rising
Nicotine research in the brain
Specific to long covid:
General immunological studies on nicotine:Â