This enzyme reduces dependence without causing withdrawal symptoms

Does an enzyme end the nicotine addiction?

The World Health Organization (WHO) views smoking as a global epidemic that causes five to six million deaths a year. Researchers have now developed an enzyme that breaks down nicotine without causing withdrawal symptoms.

Scripps Research Institute scientists have developed a drug that could help people quit smoking. The enzyme already breaks down nicotine in the blood. The doctors published the results of their study in the English language journal Science Advances.

How to overcome nicotine addiction?

Many researchers around the world are looking for new ways to help people overcome the harmful addictions of smoking – from the vaccine that prevents the beneficial effects of nicotine to the magnetic impulses transmitted to the brain and to alleviate the dependence on substances,

NicA2-J1 enzyme works extremely efficiently

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute made a major breakthrough in 2015 by discovering for the first time a natural enzyme called NicA2 in the soil of a tobacco field produced by a bacterium called Pseudomonas putida. Since then, the team has been working to optimize this enzyme by making it more effective at hunting and destroying nicotine in an animal's blood and staying there longer. The newly developed enzyme is called NicA2-J1. In animal studies, the enzyme is shown to be extremely effective in reducing blood levels of nicotine in rats, the researchers said in a press release. In rat models designed to mimic human dependence on nicotine, animals have shown incredibly low levels of nicotine in their bloodstream after treatment with the new enzyme, the authors add. Most importantly, the animals did not show significant withdrawal symptoms after the ingestion of the enzyme.

NicA2-J1 reduces dependence without withdrawal symptoms

What's special about this enzyme is that it eliminates enough nicotine to reduce dependence, but leaves enough to prevent animals from getting severe withdrawal symptoms, say the researchers. The study also examined the long-term effects of the enzyme, particularly with regard to relapse into addiction. The animals were deprived of nicotine for ten days, after which a nicotine injection was administered. Animals initially treated with NicA2-J1 exhibited significantly reduced addictive behavior compared to untreated rats, suggesting that the enzyme has long-term beneficial effects.

Side effects are minimal

One of the fascinating aspects of this research is that scientists are working to eliminate nicotine in the blood before nicotine reaches the brain. Unlike other new techniques, this method prevents the drug from reaching the brain. This is a very exciting approach because nicotine addiction can be reduced without causing cravings and other severe withdrawal symptoms, and the process works in the blood, not in the brain; side effects should be minimal, according to the authors of the study.

Research on humans is necessary

Of course, the results are not yet replicated in humans, but researchers are confident that after years of work they are now ready to conduct human studies with the first enzyme which destroys nicotine in the blood. Safety and effectiveness in humans remain major obstacles to overcome, but as research progresses, this treatment could be an extremely useful new tool for quitting smoking. The authors of the study conclude that this could save the lives of millions of people around the world. (As)