• 11/5/2004
  • Brad Kurtzberg
  • Elitestv.com

Smokers and former smokers know how difficult it can be to resist that nicotine craving. Nicotine is both physically and psychologically addictive according to scientists which explains why it is often so hard to quit smoking. Today, however, a California study indicates that one single molecule in the brain may be partly responsible for the craving for nicotine possibly leading to better ways to treat nicotine addiction.

The use of tobacco products kills more than 4 million people world wide each year including approximately 440,000 Americans. Heart disease, lung cancer, mouth cancer and many other illnesses are considered tobacco related. Nicotine is the drug in tobacco smoke that makes it addictive.

The study focused on mice. When scientists altered a particular gene in mice that were hypersensative to nicotine, their behavior changed. Mice that had previously chosen nicotine over food were able to alter their destructive bahvior.

‘Dependence-related behaviors, including reward, tolerance, and sensitization, occur strongly and at remarkably low nicotine doses’ in the mice, the research team wrote.

The pull of the molecule appears to be very strong. ‘What we have done is to show that a particular molecule is not only necessary for nicotine addiction, but is sufficient for nicotine addiction,’ one doctor who worked on the study said. ‘When the particular alpha receptor is activated by nicotine — and no other receptors — that is sufficient to produce some of the effects associated with addiction.’

Researchers are encouraged by the report but it is only a beginning. Studies still have to be conducted to see if what works on mice will hold true for humans so treatment may be some years away.