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El Reg reports
An enzyme from the Pseudomonas putida bacterium--originally isolated from soil in a tobacco field--consumes nicotine as its sole source of carbon and nitrogen. Research from not-for-profit The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) shows that this NicA2 enzyme can be recreated in the lab while retaining its potency, thus making it a potential candidate for drug development.
The enzyme therapy would be used to seek out and destroy nicotine before it reaches the brain, depriving a smoker of the buzz from nicotine that can trigger a relapse into smoking.
"Our research is in the early phase of the drug development process, but the study tells us the enzyme has the right properties to eventually become a successful therapeutic," said Kim Janda, a professor of chemistry and member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at TSRI, in a statement.
Current smoking cessation aids fail in 80-90 per cent of cases.
[...] The researchers first combined blood serum from mice with a dose of nicotine equivalent to one cigarette. When they added the enzyme, the nicotine's half-life dropped from two to three hours to just 9 to 15 minutes. A higher dose of the enzyme--and a few chemical modifications--could reduce the half-life of nicotine even further and keep it from ever reaching the brain, according to Janda and his team.
The enzyme stayed stable in the lab for more than three weeks at 98 degrees Fahrenheit. Even more importantly, the researchers detected no toxic metabolites produced when the enzyme degraded nicotine.
Related: Financial Rewards Effective in Smoking Cessation
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Sunday August 09 2015, @07:24AM
The thing is, nicotine addiction has already been defeated by an existing medication: Bupropion SR (aka Wellbutrin SR aka Zyban). Information about it was published in 2000 and updated in 2008. [nih.gov] However, this microbe sounds like an interesting way to destroy tobacco crops which frankly would be a win for society.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2015, @08:56AM
I don't understand. Do you believe that electric cigarettes (the ones where you only inhale water vapor with nicotine in it) also cause lung cancer? If you do not, then what is your problem with tobacco?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Sunday August 09 2015, @09:41AM
Don't worry I'm sure the FDA will make sure its so regulated all to fuck the average poor smoker won't be able to afford it so they'll stay smokers, just like their friends at RJ Reynolds and the congressmen getting all those smoke taxes want!
It'll be just like the regs on ecigs. I was a smoker for over 30 years, tried the gums and patches and pills (yep including Wellbutrin, didn't do shit) but then the youngest got me a variable voltage ecig and tank. I've been tobacco free for nearly 3 years now. How has the new FDA regs affected ecigs? Well I can say in my area 3 out of the 4 vape shops disappeared overnight and the one that is left? Charges 75% more just to pay for the regs. By doing so they made sure the working poor (the vast majority of smokers are working poor BTW) simply will not be able to afford to even try switching, as its easier to come up with $5 for a pack of generics than $75 for a starter kit. You of course see RJ Reynolds and pals owning the "cig-a-likes" being pushed for a good reason...they don't work and they know this so it isn't a threat to their business. They taste like somebody shit on ditchweed, they have a battery weaker than a dollar store flashlight so the power drops after the third hit so the smoker is always struggling to get the thing to hit, you couldn't have designed a device to keep smokers on cigarettes if you tried!
So I have zero doubt this will be buried in so much red tape that it'll be ages if you see it and be expensive as hell if you do. I USED to think the government actually wanted people to quit smoking, but after seeing how quickly they jumped on "studies" made by the big tobacco while ignoring doctor after doctor saying "this works, it helps smokers quit" I just don't buy it anymore. Its about keeping those tax dollars rolling in and making sure their donors, AKA big tobacco lobbyists, are happy.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by jmoschner on Sunday August 09 2015, @02:42PM
Tobacco plants are useful as model organisms in genetics research and the production of some medications like those to treat ebola or rabies. Tobacco may also be a viable bio fuel candidate.