Nicotine patch efficacy linked to genotype
How effective nicotine patches are may be related to genotype in women but not in men.
Researchers looked at smoking abstinence in 752 people who had taken
part in a larger trial of nicotine patches eight years previously. Blood
samples allowed typing of a dopamine D2 receptor gene — DRD2 32806.
Blood testing also confirmed smoking abstinence by means of plasma cotinine
levels. The researchers revisited the trial results, linking genotype
with abstinence at one, 12, 24 and 52 weeks and at eight years.
In women, the efficacy of nicotine patches seemed to be related to their
genotype. Women with the variant T allele (CT or TT genotype) showed
considerable benefit from patches at all time points. Those with the
more common CC genotype did not show this benefit. No such relation was
seen in men.
At one year, and at eight years, women with the variant allele were around
three times more likely to have remained non-smoking with nicotine patches
than with placebo.
The authors, from Cancer Research UK and the University of Oxford, suggest
that nicotine replacement therapy works through different processes and
is subject to different genetic influences in women and men (published
online at BMJ Online First 19 March 2004 as a PDF file (65K)). |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal