"Wish to Quit Smoking" Could be Granted with the New 'Breakthrough' in Mapping the Nicotine Addiction

Do you wish to quit smoking but for so many times that you have tried to kick your cigarette habits, still you are into it? This wish to beat the nicotine addiction could soon be granted as the Researchers at the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute crystallized a protein that holds answers to how nicotine addiction occurs in the brain and expecting it will lead to new treatments.

This study expects that it will help researchers understand how nicotine influences the activity of the receptor and lead to a medication that mimics its actions in the brain.

Tobacco causes nearly 6 million deaths per year worldwide.

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in U.S.

1 in 5 deaths annually in the U.S are attributed to smoking.

These statistics from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are among of the motivating factors that lead Dr. Hibbs' team in 2012 to start researching how to determine the 3-D structure of a protein known as the alpha-4-beta-2 (α4β2) nicotinic receptor.

The α4β2 nicotinic receptor is located on nerve cells in the brain. When a person smokes a cigarette or chews tobacco, the nicotine binds to this receptor. This opens a pathway for ions to enter the cell.

For years scientists around the world have been expecting the torpedo ray to provide the clues they needed to understand how this protein works however the protein from the ray was too unstable that it could not be genetically modified, and it would not crystallize so Dr. Hibbs' team took a different approach by developing a method for mass-producing nicotinic receptors by the viral infection of a human cell line.

How did they it?

Researchers infected human cells with a virus carrying genes that encoded the proteins that form the alpha-4-beta-2 nicotinic receptor, after which they used detergent and other purification steps to separate the receptor from the cell membrane and wash away all other proteins.

After crystallizing the receptor, researchers were left with milligrams of the pure receptor that they mixed with chemicals known to promote crystallization.

The team's next step is to determine the comparison between the structures in absence of nicotine, and in the presence of molecules with different functional effects.

Study data published in the journal Nature reveal the mechanism by which nicotine activates the alpha-4-beta-2 nicotinic receptor to induce its cognitive and addictive effects, Science Daily reported Monday.

The finding may also have benefits in creating medications for certain types of epilepsy, mental illness, and dementia such as Alzheimer's, which are also associated with the nicotinic receptor. However, Dr. Hibbs cautioned that testing of any ensuing treatment would likely take many years.

"It's going to require a huge team of people and a pharmaceutical company to study the protein and develop the drugs, but I think this is the first major stepping stone to making that happen," said study author Ryan Hibbs.