Core--Analytical Laboratory

TTURC支持的大多数人体研究都需要招募具有经验证的烟草使用史的受试者。有些要求记录禁欲作为研究的一个组成部分，或在治疗试验中，作为结果的衡量标准。有些需要尼古丁的管理，和其他人，各种药物，无论是作为尼古丁的作用探针，或作为戒烟试验的潜在疗法。所有人都受益于获得药物浓度作为药物暴露的客观衡量标准。 核心实验室将测量血清或尿液中可替宁的浓度，作为长期尼古丁暴露的客观指标和长期戒烟的标志物。这些措施对于可靠地量化既往烟草暴露与受试者招募、确保治疗组之间的一致性以及可靠地记录戒烟作为治疗研究的结局或研究戒烟和复发机制至关重要。由核心实验室进行的血清尼古丁测量将允许对尼古丁暴露进行急性测量，记录急性戒断，并用于尼古丁给药研究，有助于解释药物分布的个体间差异。同样，在戒烟研究中测量药物浓度将有助于客观评估依从性。了解血浆浓度也有助于解释反应和/或毒性的变化。对用于急性探测或干扰尼古丁作用途径的药物进行测量，将有助于评估治疗组之间药物暴露的可能差异。 核心实验室提供了一个跨学科的药理学/药物评价的角度，否则集中在行为和/或神经科学的研究，也可以提高这些研究的信息价值超出了调查的主要目标。由于共同的分析方法和目标用于支持多个项目，因此有机会整合研究数据。

Most of the human studies supported by the TTURC entail the recruitment of subjects with a validated history of tobacco use. Some require documentation of abstinence either as a component of the study, or, in treatment trials, as a measure of outcome. Some require adminstration of nicotine, and others, various drugs, either as probes of nicotine's action, or as potential therapies in smoking cessation trials. All benefit from access to drug concentrations as an objective measure of drug exposure. The core laboratory will measure concentrations of cotinine in serum or urine as an objective measure of chronic nicotine exposure and marker of extended abstinence. These measures are essential to reliably quantify prior tobacco exposure in conjunction with subject recruitment, assure concordance between treatment arms, and to reliably document abstinence as an outcome in treatment studies or for investigations into the mechanisms of abstinence and relapse. Serum nicotine measurements by the core laboratory will allow for acute measurement of nicotine exposure, document acute abstinence, and for nicotine administration studies, help to account for interindividual differences in drug disposition. Similarly, measurement of concentrations of drugs in smoking cessation studies will allow an objective assessment of compliance. Knowledge of plasma concentrations may also help to explain variations in response and/or toxicity. Measurement of drugs used to acutely probe or perturb pathways involved in nicotine's actions will allow assessment of possible differences in drug exposure between treatment groups. The core laboratory provides a transdisciplinary pharmacology/drug esposure perspective to studies otherwise focused on behavior and/or neuroscience, and can also enhance the informational value of such studies beyond that of the primary goals of the investigation. Since common methodology and targets for analysis are used to support multiple projects, there are opportunities to integrate data across studies.