Emerging therapeutic targets for the treatment of nicotine addiction

Abstract

The disease burden and negative economic impact of tobacco addiction on society is considerable. Thus, there is much incentive to discover and develop novel efficacious therapeutics for the treatment of tobacco addiction. Nicotine is considered to be the major psychoactive component of tobacco smoke that is responsible for the initiation and maintenance of the tobacco habit. Nicotine, at the concentrations obtained from tobacco smoke, elicits its effects in the brain through actions at the neuronal nico tinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). As such, most pharmacological agents that have been developed to aid smoking cessation efforts have direct or indirect actions at nAChRs, either substituting for the stimulatory effects of nicotine or blocking the effects of nicotine at these receptors. Over recent years, novel therapeutic agents have been developed that act at sites other than the nAChRs. With continued advances in our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of tobacco addiction, it is likely that further novel approaches for the treatment of this condition will be developed. The aim of this editorial is to briefly high light the emergence of novel targets for the development of new therapeutics to aid in smoking cessation efforts. Cigarette smoking is one of the largest preventable causes of death and disease in developed countries. Tobacco-related disease is responsible for approximately 440,000 deaths annually and results in approximately $160 billion in healthrelated costs in the USA [1]. Despite the well-known negative health consequences associated with the tobacco-smoking habit, only approximately 10% of smokers who attempt to quit annually remain abstinent after 1 year. Considering the devastating consequences of tobacco addiction, there is much interest in understanding the neuro biological mechanisms contributing to the persistence of the smoking habit and developing therapeutics to facilitate smoking cessation effort.