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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2015, @09:46AM
You're welcome to continue your filthy little habit as long as you don't belch the smoke at me.