Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Addiction and Genetic Risk

For several decades, scientists have known that most of the risk for habitual heavy smoking (smoking a pack each day) is largely influenced by genetics. This conclusion comes from the study of identical and fraternal twins from Scandinavia, North America, Australia and (more recently) China. It has been estimated that ~ 2/3 of the risk to become a heavy habitual smoker is genetic. This does not imply that this genetic risk is due to a single gene. It is known that many genes are involved, each one contributing a small amount of risk.

Finding the individual genes is a considerable challenge, but worth the effort, because it is hoped that the genes conveying risk for heavy smoking could be used to develop new medicines to help people quit. The development of new medicines to help people quit is particularly important, because the existing medications, including nicotine replacement ('the patch' or gum), bupropion and varenicline are effective in the short-term (several months) for a minority of heavy smokers.

First nicotine, then other abused substances? Bioengineering and TECHNOCORRECTIONS? I’d say so.

And here’s a possible technique for making those genetic changes if you want to prove yourself really interesting at parties:

New Method Exploits Ancient Mechanism To Switch Genes On And Off At Will

No comments: