From Newsday:
| WASHINGTON -- A single molecule may be partly to blame for nicotine's addictive allure, a finding that researchers say could lead to potential therapies to help millions of smokers quit a life-threatening habit. More than 4 million people around the globe -- 440,000 of them Americans -- die from smoking-related causes each year. And, the nicotine-laced smoke damages more than just their lungs.
The California researchers not only pinpointed a molecule responsible for nicotine addiction, they also created specialized mice to make it easier to search for other molecules impacted by nicotine addiction. The research team started by fiddling with a single gene to create mice that were hypersensitive to nicotine. The genetically engineered mice were tripped up by the tiniest exposure to nicotine -- a concentration 1/50th of the strength of nicotine coursing through a typical smoker's blood. Once hooked, the mice experienced classic signs of nicotine dependence that keep smokers puffing, the research team reports Friday in the journal Science..... |
Okay, fine. But how on earth are they possibly going to find a single molecule in an entire human body? Moral of the story: Newsday needs to find writers that make sense.
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