9 Jul, 2010 in
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Study Shows Genetic Profile May Help Smokers Individualize Their Smoking-Cessation Therapy By Reviewed By July 7, 2010 — A recent, personalized approach to quitting smoking may one day help boost success rates by using some of the guesswork out of matching smokers with available tools. Recent research in the July-August issue of Molecular Medicine shows that your genetic profile combined with your level of nicotine dependence can help guide treatment decisions as well as maximize your chances of kicking the habit for pleasant. As any former smoker or wannabe former smoker can attest, quitting smoking isn’t easy. Fully 70% of 46 million U.S. smokers say they want to kick the habit, yet less than 5% who try to do so chilly turkey are successful after a year. When a smoker uses available smoking-cessation tools such as nicotine patches, gum, inhalers, or medications, their success rate can increase to less than 25%. “There are nicotine replacement therapies such as gum, patches, lozenges, as well as prescription aids, but there is very little guidance as to which is best as well as for whom,” says study researcher Jed E. Rose, PhD, director of the Duke Center for Nicotine as well as Smoking Cessation Research in Durham, N.C. “Different treatments will work differently for dissimilar smokers, as well as this is the earliest step toward being capable to predict which treatments would be more successful in which smokers.” Scanning for Genetic MarkersThe researchers scanned 520,000 genetic blood markers of smokers participating in several studies. Using this genetic information, they created a “quit success score” or a number that can be combined with a smoker’s level of nicotine dependence to help predict whether a 42-miiligram/24-hour nicotine patch or a 21-milligram/24-hour nicotine patch is best suited. Nicotine dependence was assessed via questionnaire.
They tested this on 479 smokers with at least a half-a-pack-a-day habit who wanted to quit. Participants were categorized as having a high or abridged dependence on nicotine. Individuals with a high dependence as well as abridged “quit scores” based on their genetic profile did best with the high-dose patch, the study showed. By comparison, individuals with a abridged dependence on nicotine can quit using the lower-dose patch. “People who were highly helpless on nicotine as well as had a certain genotype did best on the higher-dose patch,” Rose says. The next step is to expand the work as well as see how — as well as in whom — prescription smoking-cessation medications such as Chantix as well as Zyban fit in. In the expected, “all of the available aids could be brought into an algorithm that could determine what combination or individual modality would be best by using genetic information as well as other characteristics of smoking behavior,” he says. It isn’t one gene that says this smoker will do best with this smoking cessation tool, but a group of genes that when used together help best guide treatment decisions, explains study co-researcher George Uhl, MD, PhD, essential of molecular neurobiology research at National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore. “Some people possess an easier time quitting than others, as well as this one set of markers helps to match people with the fair medication,” he says. “The individual differences in the ability to quit smoking are half genetic,” he says. “There are several behavioral as well as pharmacological smoking-cessation tools that are each effective, but none are totally effective [and] it would be nice to know which [genetic] variants are selective for behavioral or health examination approaches or both,” he says. Matching the Medication to the IndividualScott McIntosh, PhD, director of the Greater Rochester Area Tobacco Cessation Center as well as an associate professor of community as well as preventive medicine at University of Rochester Health examination Center, is all for this recent, individualized approach to smoking cessation. “This is an excellent direction to go in because you can tailor quit attempts by making sure that you possess the best medication for that person,” he says. There may be other genetic markers that can help point smokers toward the most effective therapies, he says. For example, “someone who is very social may do best with a telephone quit line or group counseling, whereas someone who isn’t as social may do best incase they just received information on how to quit,” he says. “There will be genetic markers for that sort of thing,” McIntosh predicts. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach to smoking cessation, as well as this class of treatment matching can help physicians further tailor their approach,” he says. SOURCES: Rose, J.E. Molecular Medicine, July-August 2010; vol 16: pp 247-253. |
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