The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Genetics plays a significant role in helping some smokers quit habit, says U.S. expert

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Genetics plays a significant role in helping some smokers quit habit, says U.S. expert

Y. Mallikarjun

Quitting smoking may mean you have won a ‘genetic lottery’

HYDERABAD: Thank your “lucky stars” for winning a “genetic lottery” if you managed to quit decades-old habit of smoking without any addiction problems.

With genetics playing an important role in the ability of nicotine to lead tobacco dependence in some individuals and not others, studies have been taken up to understand the processes for the differences at the molecular level.

Gene variation contributed to nicotine/tobacco dependency, Stephen Ekker from Mayo Clinic, Rochester, U.S. told the delegates at the recently-concluded Human Genome Meeting.

While some manage to kick off the habit quite easily, most others find it difficult to do so.

His laboratory has taken up studies on zebrafish (danio rerio) as a model for drug dependency, including establishing nicotine response and sensitisation.

100 million deaths

He said that 100 million people had died of tobacco-induced health effects in the 20th century and at the current smoking rates, over a billion were expected to die by the end of the 21st century. Cigarette smoking accounts for 90 per cent of lung cancer cases. Stating that it was the most preventable health problem, he said that 65 per cent of men and 33 per cent women in India use tobacco. “There are more tobacco users in India than people in U.S.,” he remarked.

Lauding the Indian government’s decision to ban smoking in public places from October 2, he, however, expressed doubts over the effective implementation of the ban. India still subsidised tobacco farmers, he reminded.

Meanwhile, the president, Human Genome Organisation (HUGO), Edison Liu, has advised the Indian government to make “big time” investments in genomics as it was a “very powerful tool to address every aspect of biology and human disease.”

While talking to The Hindu, he said that countries such as India had the resources and it was a matter of using them intelligently.

Asked how he proposed to democratise HUGO, he said it would engage scientists from all over the world in decision-making and not only from North America and Europe. The organisation would help the developing countries do highest quality research in genomics.

He said HUGO’s biggest contribution to the developing nations would be on ethical and legal issues.

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