NICOTINIC RECEPTORS AND SMOKING CESSATION

描述：(申请人摘要) 对烟草产品的上瘾是最常见和最 当今世界的破坏性成瘾。据估计，近一半的人 世界上有三分之一的人口吸烟。很少有生物标记物 常用于监测戒烟情况，提供长期戒烟信息 使用烟草产品，也没有任何形式的戒烟成功预测 吸烟的习惯。我们已经证明了烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体， 对香烟中尼古丁做出反应的受体在 生前吸烟者的死后大脑，但下降到接近 不同时期停止吸烟的受试者的控制值 在死前。尼古丁受体也在慢性前列腺癌的白细胞中表达。 外周血液，在临床环境中很容易获得。外围 血液中的中性粒细胞对吸烟也有类似的调节反应。 在大脑中可以看到的产品。拟议的研究将发展这种分析方法。 外周血中尼古丁受体水平作为生物标志物 监测戒烟情况。我们将1)优化尼古丁受体 外周血中性粒细胞结合试验，2)测定范围 非吸烟者和非吸烟者血中性粒细胞烟碱受体的表达 有不同吸烟史的受试者，以及3)评估 这项测试是在一个实际的戒烟计划中进行的。

DESCRIPTION: (Applicant's Abstract) The addiction to use of tobacco products is one of the most common and most destructive addictions in the world today. It is estimated that nearly half of the world population smokes cigarettes. Few of the biological markers commonly used to monitor smoking cessation provide information on long term use of tobacco products, nor any type of prediction of success in quitting the smoking habit. We have shown that nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, the receptors responding to nicotine in cigarettes, are increased in postmortem brain of subjects who were smokers in life, but decline to near control values in subjects who had ceased to smoke for varying periods before death. Nicotinic receptors are also expressed in the white cells of peripheral blood, which is easy to obtain in a clinical setting. Peripheral blood neutrophils have a similar regulatory response to use of tobacco products as is seen in brain. The proposed studies would develop the assay for nicotinic receptor levels in peripheral blood as a biological marker for monitoring smoking cessation. We will 1) optimize the nicotinic receptor binding assay for peripheral blood neutrophils, 2) determine the range of nicotinic receptor expression in blood neutrophils in never-smokers and in subjects with variable smoking histories, and 3) evaluate the utility of this assay in an actual smoking cessation program.