2024-04-13 17:24:13
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, killing more than 480,000 Americans each year. in 2021 according to data, about 11 percent of American adults reported smoking cigarettes, with men slightly more likely to smoke than women.
However, while women smoke less on average, previous studies have shown that women are more prone to nicotine addiction and tend to become addicted more quickly to lower nicotine levels.
“Studies show that women are more likely than men to become addicted to nicotine and have a harder time quitting,” said Sally Pauss, a doctoral student at the University of Kentucky Lexington College of Medicine who led the study. – The goal of our work is to understand what causes women to be more prone to nicotine use disorders, so that gender differences in the treatment of nicotine addiction can be reduced.”
The role of estrogens
One clear difference between men and women is the estrogen they produce. Therefore, the researchers screened a large library of genes known to be activated by this hormone. Only one class of candidate genes met this criterion: genes encoding the olfactomedin family of proteins, which play diverse roles in early nervous system development and functional development.
The researchers then conducted several studies with human uterine cells and rats to better understand the interactions between olfactomedins, estrogens, and nicotine. The experiments revealed an interesting connection: estrogen activates olfactomedins that are inhibited by nicotine in areas of the brain associated with reward and addiction—which may lead individuals to use nicotine to satisfy these reward areas.
To make it easier for women to quit smoking
“If we can confirm that estrogen drives nicotine craving and consumption through olfactomedins, we can develop drugs that can block this effect,” says Pauss. “We hope that such drugs will help women to quit nicotine more easily.”
The researchers say this knowledge could be particularly useful for patients taking estrogen-based oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy, who may be at increased risk of developing nicotine use disorder.
The results of the study were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Adapted from Neewsweek.
2024-04-13 17:24:13