Researchers create candidate drugs with potential to curb smoking

Washington State University researchers have created more than a dozen candidate drugs with the potential to curb smokers' desire for nicotine by slowing how it is broken down in the body. The researchers hope the substances can help people reduce their consumption of tobacco, if not quit altogether.

The discovery, published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, targets a liver enzyme, called CYP2A6, which metabolizes nicotine. Canadian researchers in the mid-90s found that people who have fewer copies of a gene for the enzyme tend to smoke less and are less likely to be addicted to smoking.

"If you inhibit CYP2A6, it shouldn't bother your overall health," said Lazarus. "If we could specifically target this enzyme, people should be fine, and it will possibly help them stop smoking or at least decrease their amount of smoking."

So far, the researchers have tested their candidate drugs to make sure they don't disrupt other major enzymes that help the body metabolize other substances. This helped narrow the number of potential drugs down to 18.

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