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Genes may help some quit smoking
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/6/07
HEALTHDAY

Smokers without certain DNA may face an even tougher battle kicking the
habit, new research shows.

A U.S. study finds that people who were able to quit smoking had
variants in 221 genes that weren't found in smokers who weren't able to
kick the habit. The researchers analyzed 520,000 genes taken from blood
samples.

"The long-term hope is that identifying these genetic variables in
smokers will help us determine which type of treatment would be most
effective," Jed Rose, director of Duke University's Center for Nicotine
and Smoking Cessation Research, in Durham, N.C., said in a prepared
statement.

His team published the study online Monday in the journal BMC Genetics.

The findings suggest that doctors may be able to tailor smoking
cessation programs to a person's individual genetic makeup, the researchers
said.

"Knowing a smoker's genetic makeup could indicate how intensely they
need to be treated. People who are having trouble quitting because of their
genes might need more treatment to overcome their addiction," Rose said.

The scientists said they understood the function of 187 of the 221 gene
variants that were present only in smokers who had been able to quit. The
functions of the remaining gene variants still need to be determined.

"We also found that at least 30 of the genes that we had previously identified as playing roles in dependence to other drugs also contribute to nicotine dependence. These findings lend further support to the idea that nicotine dependence shares some common genetic vulnerabilities with addictions to other legal and illegal substances," George Uhl, a neurologist and neuroscientist in the molecular neurobiology branch of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in a prepared statement.

I, on the other hand, appear to still be a "toker" and I've been registered longer than Greg...go figure!