Genetic factors play a significant role in nicotine dependence, according to a modern study that could pave the way for more effective addiction treatments. Understanding the genetic components of addiction is a crucial step in addressing public health challenges related to tobacco use.
Individuals don’t all respond to cigarettes in the same way and research now confirms that susceptibility to nicotine addiction isn’t random. A joint study conducted by American and Mexican researchers, published Tuesday in the scientific journal Nature Communications, demonstrates a genetic basis for this variability.
Scientists analyzed the genomes of more than 250,000 smokers across three continents. They discovered that individuals carrying one or two variants of the CHRNB3 gene smoked fewer cigarettes than those without the variants.
Increased Resistance
Specifically, those with one variant of the CHRNB3 gene smoked 21% fewer cigarettes per day, while individuals carrying two mutations smoked 78% fewer cigarettes daily.
The brains of these individuals are less receptive to nicotine. “These minority individuals have a receptor – which you could represent as a lock where nicotine is the key – that is less effective and more resistant,” explains Thierry Favrod-Coune, a physician responsible for the addiction unit at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), in a report by RTS.
This receptor difference leads people carrying the CHRNB3 gene variants to tend to smoke less.
Toward More Effective Treatment?
Medications that block nicotine receptors in the body already exist, but their effectiveness is limited.
This new scientific discovery raises hopes for developing a medication that can mimic the inhibitory effect of the studied genetic variant.
“Given that tobacco reduction is 80% in people who have both abnormal genes, we could imagine that this new treatment would be 3 to 4 times more powerful than current medications,” notes Thierry Favrod-Coune.
In Switzerland, tobacco is responsible for 14% of all deaths, according to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). It is the substance that causes the most deaths, ahead of alcohol, and drugs.
Cécile Durring/iar
