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News tagged with nicotine

Nicotine vaccine prevents nicotine from reaching the brain

If smoking a cigarette no longer delivers pleasure, will smokers quit? It's the idea behind a nicotine vaccine being created by MIT and Harvard researchers, in which an injection of synthetic nanoparticles ...

Addiction created May 02, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (14) | comments 9 | with audio podcast weblog

Researchers develop novel anti-body vaccine that blocks addictive nicotine chemicals from reaching the brain

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have developed and successfully tested in mice an innovative vaccine to treat nicotine addiction.

Medical research created Jun 27, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Discovery of gatekeeper nerve cells explains the effect of nicotine on learning and memory

Swedish researchers at Uppsala University have, together with Brazilian collaborators, discovered a new group of nerve cells that regulate processes of learning and memory. These cells act as gatekeepers and carry a receptor ...

Neuroscience created Oct 07, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

New e-cigarettes affect users' airways

(Medical Xpress) -- E-cigarettes, or electronic cigarettes, are promoted as a safer alternative to smoking. However, a new study published in the journal Chest, shows that these e-cigarettes cause immediate change ...

Health created Jan 06, 2012 | popularity 3.2 / 5 (10) | comments 18 | with audio podcast report

Enzyme might be target for treating smoking, alcoholism at same time

An enzyme that appears to play a role in controlling the brain's response to nicotine and alcohol in mice might be a promising target for a drug that simultaneously would treat nicotine addiction and alcohol abuse in people, ...

Medical research created Sep 12, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Why smokers are thinner? Nicotine triggered appetite suppression site identified in brain

It is widely known that smoking inhibits appetite, but what is not known, is what triggers this process in the brain. Now researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, participating in a Yale University School of Medicine-led ...

Neuroscience created Jun 09, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

A vaccine for nicotine?

(Medical Xpress) -- When Peter Burkhard first heard the idea of a nicotine vaccine eight years ago, he thought it was funny – how could a vaccine affect something that’s not technically a disease?

Medical research created Oct 04, 2011 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 1

Researchers argue 'addiction' a poor way to understand the normal use of drugs

A new review from UK and German researchers claims that the vast majority of people who routinely use drugs are using them to achieve their goals and cope better with the stresses of modern life.

Other created Apr 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 8

Stimulating the brain blunts cigarette craving

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths globally. Unfortunately smoking cessation is difficult, with more than 90% of attempts to quit resulting in relapse.

Psychology & Psychiatry created Apr 16, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Big Tobacco knew radioactive particles in cigarettes posed cancer risk but kept quiet

Tobacco companies knew that cigarette smoke contained radioactive alpha particles for more than four decades and developed "deep and intimate" knowledge of these particles' cancer-causing potential, but they deliberately ...

Health created Sep 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 10 | with audio podcast

Researchers propose a new approach to understanding common psychiactric treatments

(Medical Xpress)—Drugs for psychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia often require weeks to take full effect. "What takes so long?" has formed one of psychiatry's most stubborn mysteries. ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Nov 21, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Judge orders tobacco companies to say they lied

(AP)—A federal judge on Tuesday ordered tobacco companies to publish corrective statements that say they lied about the dangers of smoking and that disclose smoking's health effects, including the death on average of 1,200 ...

Health created Nov 27, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 3

Your brain on nicotine: Nicotine receptors affect social behavior

If you think nicotine receptors are only important to smokers trying to kick the tobacco habit, think again. New research published in the FASEB Journal suggests that these receptors also play an important role in social ...

Medical research created Jun 30, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New piece to the puzzle of brain function

Researchers at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen have collaborated with the company NeuroSearch to generate new knowledge about an important part of the brain's complex communication system. ...

Neuroscience created Aug 19, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers identify DNA region linked to depression

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and King's College London have independently identified DNA on chromosome 3 that appears to be related to depression.

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 16, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Nicotine

Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants (Solanaceae) which constitutes approximately 0.6–3.0% of dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots, and accumulating in the leaves. It functions as an antiherbivore chemical with particular specificity to insects; therefore nicotine was widely used as an insecticide in the past, and currently nicotine analogs such as imidacloprid continue to be widely used.

In low concentrations (an average cigarette yields about 1 mg of absorbed nicotine), the substance acts as a stimulant in mammals and is one of the main factors responsible for the dependence-forming properties of tobacco smoking. According to the American Heart Association, "Nicotine addiction has historically been one of the hardest addictions to break." The pharmacological and behavioral characteristics that determine tobacco addiction are similar to those that determine addiction to drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Nicotine content in cigarettes has actually slowly increased over the years, and one study found that there was an average increase of 1.6% per year between the years of 1998 and 2005. This was found for all major market categories of cigarettes.

For more information about Nicotine, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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