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• Depending on Cigarettes, Counting on Science / Understanding how specific genes work could keep smokers from coveting that next hit or lighting up in the first place 

Faster than an injection, more reinforcing than crack cocaine: Smoking a cigarette speeds nicotine to the brain faster than any other delivery method . .

Researchers are using knowledge about the biology of addiction to study specific genes that might predispose or protect people from getting hooked, with the hope of keeping future generations from inhaling. . .

Two companies, Xenova Group and Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, are taking a vaccine approach to block nicotine's action on the brain. . .

Vocci says he's studying other drugs such as small-molecule D1 dopamine receptor agonists and drugs that affect the glutamate system to block an effect called priming, whereby researchers reexpose previously addicted animals to a drug, inducing a reinstatement response. Both Dalack and Lerman think future studies--such as comparing schizophrenic patients who smoke with those who do not, or stratifying smokers according to their biological response to nicotine on brain scans or blood tests--will provide finer resolution of the smoking phenotype.

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