Kontakt 2006, 8(2):355-357 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2006.056

Gene of dependence on nicotineBiomedicine

Jiří Patočka^1,*, Anna Strunecká²

¹ Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Zdravotně sociální fakulta, katedra radiologie a toxikologie

² Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Přírodovědecká fakulta, katedra fyziologie živočichů a vývojové biologie

By smoking tobacco we mean inhalation of the smoke from burning dried tobacco leaves. This practice was common in many original inhabitants of America and it was brought into the rest of the world by sailors, who participated in first voyages of Europeans to the American continent. The most common form of smoking tobacco is smoking cigarettes. The tobacco smoke contains nicotine, which is a substance temporarily stimulating the alertness and memory, but it simultaneously induces a strong physical and mental dependence. Medical research demonstrated that smoking considerably participates in many health problems, particularly lung cancer, emphysema and cardiovascular diseases. Thus, a number of countries try to restrict sales of tobacco products and by restricting their advertisements and by prohibiting smoking at public places, they try to diminish effects of the smoke on non-smokers. Nicotine is a primary addictive substance in smoking tobacco. In this short review, we consider the dependence on nicotine and genetics of smokers with respect to cytochrome P450 (CYP2A6). In humans, nicotine is inactivated by its biotransformation to cotinine and CYP2A6 makes about 90% of this conversion. However, not all the people believe that genetic variations in CYP2A6 may play their important role in smoking. We summarize certain more recent findings about effects of the CYP2A6 genetic polymorphism, pharmacokinetics of nicotine, behaviour of smokers and concepts concerning possible ways of affecting different effects in the course of particular smoking stages by genes. Application of these findings to new and original methods of stopping smoking is discussed. Persons with slow metabolic conversion of nicotine and those with prevalent symptoms of depression are at enhanced risk of the dependence on nicotine.

Keywords: smoking; nicotine; biotransformation; CYP2A6; genetics

Published: December 15, 2006  Show citation