Andrew C. Harris, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Medicine

E-MAIL: [email protected]


Research Interests:

My research involves the use of animal models to study the behavioral pharmacology of addiction to nicotine and other drugs of abuse. The long-term goal of this work is to inform the development of more effective preventions and treatments for drug addiction. Specific areas of interest include: a) Development of models involving tobacco product exposure to inform FDA regulation of tobacco products and to understand the role of non-nicotine constituents in tobacco addiction; b) Role of negative affective (emotional) withdrawal symptoms and other factors in individual differences in vulnerability to drug addiction; c) Development of novel pharmacotherapies for addiction including the neuropeptide oxytocin and immunotherapy (vaccines and monoclonal antibodies). I use a number of behavioral models to address ion, place / taste conditioning, and locomotor sensitization.

 

Publications:

(For a comprehensive list of recent publications, refer to PubMed, a service provided by the National Library of Medicine.)

  • Swain Y, Waller NG, Gewirtz JC, Harris AC. Individual differences in different measures of opioid self-administration in rats are accounted for by a single latent variable. Front Psychiatry. 2021 Sep 7;12:712163.
  • Harris AC. Further pharmacological characterization of a preclinical model of the early development of nicotine withdrawal. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2021 Sep 1;226:108870.
  • Harris AC. Magnitude of open-field thigmotaxis during mecamylamine-precipitated nicotine withdrawal in rats is influenced by mecamylamine dose, duration of nicotine infusion, number of withdrawal episodes, and age. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2021 Jun;205:173185.
  • Swain Y, Gewirtz JC, Harris AC. Behavioral predictors of individual differences in opioid addiction vulnerability as measured using i.v. self-administration in rats. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2021 Apr 1;221:108561.
  • Harris AC, Muelken P, LeSage MG. β-Carbolines found in cigarette smoke elevate intracranial self-stimulation thresholds in rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2020 Nov;198:173041.
  • Swain Y, Muelken P, Skansberg A, Lanzdorf D, Haave Z, LeSage MG, Gewirtz JC, Harris AC. Higher anhedonia during withdrawal from initial opioid exposure is protective against subsequent opioid self-administration in rats. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2020 Aug;237(8):2279-2291.
  • Harris AC, Smethells JR, Palumbo M, Goniewicz M, LeSage MG. Comparison of the relative abuse liability of electronic cigarette aerosol extracts and nicotine alone in adolescent rats: A behavioral economic analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jan 30;17(3):860.
  • Harris AC, Muelken P, Swain Y, Palumbo M, Jain V, Goniewicz ML, Stepanov I, LeSage MG. Non-nicotine constituents in e-cigarette aerosol extract attenuate nicotine's aversive effects in adolescent rats. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2019 Oct 1;203:51-60.
  • Swain Y, Muelken P, LeSage MG, Gewirtz JC, Harris AC.   Locomotor activity does not predict individual differences in morphine self-administration in rats.  Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2018 Mar;166:48-56.  PMID: 29409807 
  • Smethells JR, Harris AC, Burroughs D, Hursh SR, LeSage MG.  Substitutability of nicotine alone and an electronic cigarette liquid using a concurrent choice assay in rats: A behavioral economic analysis.  Drug Alcohol Depend. 2018 Feb 5;185:58-66. PMID: 29427916 [PubMed
  • Harris AC, Muelken P, Smethells JR, Yershova K, Stepanov I, Olson TT, Kellar KJ, LeSage MG.  Effects of nicotine-containing and "nicotine-free" e-cigarette refill liquids on intracranial self-stimulation in rats.  Drug Alcohol Depend. 2018 Feb 1;185:1-9. PMID: 29413432
  • Berman ML, Bickel WK, Harris AC, LeSage MG, O'Connor RJ, Stepanov I, Shields PG, Hatsukami DK. Consortium on Methods Evaluating Tobacco: Research Tools to Inform FDA Regulation of Snus. Nicotine Tob Res. 2017 Oct 4. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntx228.
  • Harris AC, Muelken P, Smethells JR, Krueger M, LeSage MG. Similar precipitated withdrawal effects on intracranial self-stimulation during chronic infusion of an e-cigarette liquid or nicotine alone. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2017 Oct;161:1-5.
  • LeSage MG, Staley M, Muelken P, Smethells JR, Stepanov I, Vogel RI, Pentel PR, Harris AC. Abuse liability assessment of an e-cigarette refill liquid using intracranial self-stimulation and self-administration models in rats. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2016 Nov 1;168:76-88.
  • Schmidt CE, Manbeck KE, Shelley D, Harris AC. Blockade of cholinergic transmission elicits somatic signs in nicotine-naïve adolescent rats. Front Pharmacol. 2015;6:239.
  • Muelken P, Schmidt CE, Shelley D, Tally L, Harris AC. A two-day continuous nicotine infusion is sufficient to demonstrate nicotine withdrawal in rats as measured using intracranial self-stimulation. PLOS One. 2015;10(12):e0144553.
  • Harris AC, Tally L, Schmidt CE, Muelken P, Stepanov I, Saha S, Isaksson Vogel R, LeSage MG. Animal models to assess the abuse liability of tobacco products: Effects of smokeless tobacco extracts on intracranial self- stimulation. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2015;147:60-67.
  • Holtz NA, Radke AK, Zlebnik NE, Harris AC, Carroll ME. Intracranial self-stimulation reward thresholds during morphine withdrawal in rats bred for High (HiS) and low (LoS) saccharin intake. Brain Res. 2015;1602:119-126.
  • Harris AC, Tally L, Muelken P, Banal A, Schmidt CE, Cao Q, LeSage MG. Effects of nicotine and minor tobacco alkaloids on intracranial self-stimulation in rats. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2015;153:330-334..
  • Harris AC, LeSage MG, Shelley D, Perry JL, Pentel PR, Owens SM. The anti-(+)- methamphetamine monoclonal antibody mAb7F9 attenuates acute (+)- methamphetamine effects on intracranial self-stimulation in rats. PLOS One. 2015;10(3): e0118787. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118787.
  • Harris AC, Mattson C, Shelley D, LeSage MG. (2014). Restraint stress attenuates nicotine's locomotor stimulant but not discriminative stimulus effects in rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2014;124:92-100.
  • Manbeck KE, Shelley D, Schmidt CE, Harris AC. Effects of oxytocin on nicotine withdrawal in rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2014;116:84-89.
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