According to research conducted by an international team of geneticists, including participants from Mexico, individuals with a rare variant of the nicotine receptor gene are less likely to abuse . The findings could eventually assist scientists in developing medications to treat nicotine addiction.
Researchers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Mexico sequenced the genomes of 37,897 avid smokers who participated in a long-term health study in Mexico City.
The team identified the p.Glu284Gly variant of the CHRNB3 gene, which encodes the “subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor,” as reported by the leading authors of the study, Veera Rajagopal and Giovanni Coppola from the Regeneron Genetics Center (USA), to IFLScience. This variant was more prevalent among members of the indigenous Mexican population.
Researchers found that carriers of one or two copies of the p.Glu284Gly variant smoked significantly less. Those with one copy smoked, on average, 21 percent fewer cigarettes, while those with two copies smoked 78 percent fewer.
By comparing these findings with results from studies of European and Asian cohorts obtained from British and Japanese biobanks, scientists observed similar effects associated with variants of the . This suggests that these variants may hinder smoking across different populations. However, as the authors emphasized, this needs to be confirmed through larger-scale studies.
According to Rajagopal and Coppola, this represents “a striking, incredible strength and consistency of the signal across three completely independent populations.”
“The variant found in indigenous Mexicans, the variant found in East Asian residents, and the combined European signal are different mutations in the same gene, yet they produce nearly identical effects. Such interethnic convergence in genetics is relatively rare,” the scientists explained.
These results confirm that for many individuals, the number of cigarettes smoked is influenced less by willpower and more by biological characteristics. “Some people are indeed wired differently, and understanding these traits is the first step toward developing more effective tools to help them,” the researchers believe.
The study’s findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.
According to the World Health Organization, smoking tobacco cigarettes is responsible for over 7 million each year. This figure includes about 1.6 million non-smokers who die from the effects of secondhand smoke. It remains a significant public health issue worldwide. However, there has been little progress in developing medications that could assist those suffering from nicotine addiction.
