Genes are the cause of smoking habits

Anyone who has ever tried smoking can remember the feeling of smoking the first cigarette. For some people, it can cause nausea or an unpleasant cough. For others, the first vapors gave them a sense of pleasure or 'pleasure'.

A new study has found a connection between a person's first feeling of smoking and the likelihood of becoming a current smoker and a separate genetic modification. This finding helps explain the way from the first cigarette to lifelong smoking habits.

The new finding also adds skepticism around the role of nicotine receptor genes for smoking and lung cancer. Other researchers have found a link between the transformation of a gene segment to the dependence of smokers on nicotine, the number of cigarettes smoked per day and the risk of high lung cancer - the ultimate consequence. of smoking habits.

In the article published online in Addiction magazine, a group of scientists from many universities with expertise in the areas of statistical genetics, genetic trait analysis published the link between changes in the gene that senses nicotine CHRNA5 and the first feeling of smoking along with current smoking habits.

Genetic data and smoking processes were collected from 435 volunteers . Non-smokers have tried at least one cigarette but no more than 100 cigarettes , and have never formed a smoking habit. Smokers often smoke at least 5 cigarettes a day for at least the last 5 years.

Compared to non-smokers, regular smokers tend to form rs16969968 of the CHRNA5 gene, in which only one pair of genes is different from the more common form. This type of genetic modification is called a nucleotide polymorph or SNP.

People who smoke regularly tend to have an immediate sense of pleasure at the first cigarette eight times more than non-smokers.

The author is also the project leader Ovide Pomerlueau, a professor of psychiatry at Michigan Medical University and the founder of the UM nicotin research laboratory, said: 'It seems that for most genetically modified people The first response to smoking may play an important role in determining what will happen next. '

He added: 'If smoking is maintained, nicotine cravings will appear in a few days to several months. The discovery of gene association with the enjoyment of cigarette smelling can help explain drug addiction - and of course, once addicted to cigarettes, many people will continue to smoke for the rest of their lives. '.

The new study links the first smoking sensation and a person's current smoking status to changes in the nitcotin receptor gene in the brain. (Photo: University of Michigan)

Researchers point out that genetic modification only partially explains human smoking habits, and a more complete explanation of why some people smoke and why they cannot give up smoking. more information is needed on gene interaction for social and environmental factors.

Pomerleau judges that the ability to link smoking habits with genetics in humans will need extensive information about behavior, genes, and environmental conditions - as well as bioinformatics tools to connect messages. That news is together. He said: 'Genetic understanding of complex disorders such as nicotine addiction will require a long and intensive research process . ' The research team emphasized that the relationship with CHRNA5 proved strong and practical applications from this study included new genetic experiments on smoking risk and the development of pharmaceuticals aimed at genes that make up that risk.

Pomerleau made clear that the new paper was based on the findings of co-author Laura Bierut last year, which studied both genomes showing the same nucleotide polymorphism, rs16969968, of CHRNA5 gene related to level smokers depend on nicotine. He also said this year, three independently published articles demonstrated that variations in one gene, and related genes, significantly increased the risk of lung cancer. Considering the relationship with the feeling of pleasure in the first time of smoking, the likelihood of nicotine being studied is higher, as is the risk of this larger, genetically altered lung cancer that forms the triad of effects that causes the disease. concerned about smoking habits.

The mechanism that explains the increased risk of infection, proposed by a genetic cancer researcher, is the ability of certain chemicals, such as N-nitrosonornicotine in cigarette smoke, to affect muscles. Nicotine receptors in the lungs make changes that cause cancer - a process called tumorigenesis.

The new findings link the first smoking sensation, smoking habits, and genetic modification based on previous research by Ovide Pomerleau and Cynthia Pomerleau, at UM. In a study conducted over 10 years, they documented a link between nitrous dependence and first-time smoking.

Ovide Pomerleau also said that fellow animal researcher Allan Collins and Jerry Stitzel at the University of Colorado were reliable. That study has strengthened the notion that the first reaction to nicotine could give rise to nicotine dependence - and nicotine-induced genetic modification is the basis for this process.

Ovide Pomerleau and Laura Bierut are members of the nicotine therapy drug advisory board for Pfizer, Inc. Laura Bierut and John Rice at Washington University hold the copyright on the CHRNA5 SNP granted by Perlegen Sciences.

Refer:
Sherva et al.Association of a single nucleotide polymorphism in neuronal acetylcholine subunit receptor alpha 5 (CHRNA5) with smoking status and with 'pleasurable buzz' during early experimentation with smoking.Addiction, 2008;103 (9): 1544 DOI: 10.1111 / j.1360-0443.2008.02279.x