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• RJR spins off biotech company / Nicotine may yield Alzheimer's treatment 

"Nicotine was the natural product from tobacco that gave us clues," said Donald deBethizy, a Reynolds vice president, now Targacept's chief executive officer. "The work we did at (Reynolds) that turned into Targacept, was to apply the knowledge about nicotine."

Nicotine does a good job of finding certain targets or receptors, located on nerve cells, usually at the end of long strands. Within the nervous system - think of it as the body's wiring - these nicotine receptors act like volume knobs on a stereo, regulating the amount of chemicals released. In a number of diseases, there is a shortage or excess of chemicals controlled by these receptors. By reaching these receptors, a drug treatment could regulate the chemical level.

So far, most work in this field has been done using the nicotine patch, a smoking cessation device. . .

Targacept and others are developing compounds that mimic nicotine's ability to stimulate targets while reducing side effects.

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