currentsinbiology:

Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia

A steady
stream of nicotine normalizes genetically-induced impairments in brain
activity associated with schizophrenia, according to new research
involving the University of Colorado Boulder. The finding sheds light on
what causes the disease and why those who have it tend to smoke
heavily.

Ultimately the authors of the study, released online today in the journal Nature Medicine,
envision their work could lead to new non-addictive, nicotine-based
treatments for some of the 51 million people worldwide who suffer from
the disease.

“Our study provides compelling biological evidence that a specific
genetic variant contributes to risk for schizophrenia, defines the
mechanism responsible for the effect and validates that nicotine
improves that deficit,” said Jerry Stitzel, a researcher at the
Institute for Behavioral Genetics (IBG) and one of four CU Boulder
researchers on the study.

“Nicotine reverses
hypofrontality in animal models of addiction and schizophrenia” by Fani
Koukouli, Marie Rooy, Dimitrios Tziotis, Kurt A Sailor, Heidi C O’Neill,
Josien Levenga, Mirko Witte, Michael Nilges, Jean-Pierre Changeux,
Charles A Hoeffer, Jerry A Stitzel, Boris S Gutkin, David A DiGregorio
& Uwe Maskos in Nature Medicine. Published online January 239 2017 doi:10.1038/nm.4274

Eighty to 90 percent of
people with schizophrenia smoke and most are very heavy smokers, a fact
that has long led researchers to suspect they are self-medicating.
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