GENETICS AND CONSEQUENCES OF NICOTINE ADDICTION

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a revised application from faculty members at the University of Utah for support of a Program Project Grant (PPG) on the genetics and consequences of nicotine addiction. The broad objective of this PPG is to systematically dissect the genetic and molecular mechanisms of addiction and to determine the role of nicotine in the devastating clinical conditions caused by cigarette smoking, identifying specific facets that can ultimately be manipulated to prevent and/or effectively treat this devastating affliction. The thematic hypothesis being tested is that the susceptibility to both nicotine addiction and its consequences has underlying genetic components. In this hypothesis, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are critically involved in initiating the determining susceptibility to addiction and the consequences of cigarette smoking, including the dysregulated inflammation and abnormal repair that lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The hypothesis will be addressed by combining studies of candidate gene and linkage analysis using the powerful Utah family database and a well-established COPD database with studies using mouse genetics and biology. The studies are designed to generate new knowledge that will improve our understanding of the genetics of addiction and its consequences. In the PPG, productive established investigators with excellent track records of interaction have combined to direct three projects and four cores. Each project addresses novel mechanisms and is oriented around the central theme. Each project is supported by new preliminary data that document the importance and feasibility of the proposed studies. We believe that the proposal offers the special advantages of established research programs, proven multidisciplinary collaborative interactions and a rich environment for productive basic and clinical research. By orienting the proposal around the genetics of addiction and its consequences, all three projects interact and intrinsically reinforce each other in almost every phase of their studies. The "intellectual structure" of the PPG is as follows: Project 1, combines the use of unique patient populations with "state of the art" techniques for genotyping and large scale nucleotide sequencing to investigate the genetics of nicotine addiction in humans. Project 2 complements the studies of Project I by delineating the genetic mechanisms that contribute to the formation and maintenance of tolerance to nicotine through nAChRs using well-characterized inbred mice and gene-targeting approaches. Project 3 uses the genetic approaches employed in Project I and animal models developed in the inbred mouse strains used in Project 2 to explore the role of nicotine in the pathogenesis of COPD and the genetic basis for COPD. An Administrative Core, an Animal Core, a Microarray Core and a Resequencing and Genomic Analysis Core support the three projects. The revised proposal has been restructured in response to the initial review and is much stronger. It offers established research programs coming together in multi-disciplinary collaborative interactions for productive basic and clinical research on an important societal problem.