Molecular ‘switch’ could be key to nicotine’s effects

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in California, US, have discovered that a lipid (fat molecule) in brain cells may act as a ‘switch’ to increase or decrease the motivation to consume nicotine.

‘The team’s findings in animal models point to a way that a drug might someday return this lipid to normal levels, perhaps making it easier for smokers to quit,’ according to a TSRI press note .

“We knew these lipids were implicated in nicotine addiction, but until now manipulating their synthesis was not pharmacologically feasible,” TSRI professor Loren (“Larry”) Parsons, senior author of the new study, was quoted as saying.

The study was said to have involved close collaboration with the TSRI labs of professor Marisa Roberto and Benjamin F. Cravatt, chair of the Department of Chemical Physiology and member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at TSRI.

It was published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The press note is at: http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/2016/20160113parsons.html