Smoking exacerbates cocaine addiction

American scientists have found that smokers are more prone to the influence of cocaine. Effects of nicotine on the brain smoker leads to such changes, which facilitate the formation of addiction to cocaine.

NARCOLOGY long been known that alcohol and tobacco are the first step to the use of harder drugs. This was confirmed by studies conducted in the US in 2009. Among the surveyed people aged 18 to 34 years, who even once tried cocaine, more than 90% smoked.

But researchers from Columbia University Medical Center identified the molecular mechanisms of the sequence. Conducted experiments on mice, they found that pre-exposure to nicotine changes the brain's response to cocaine.

The authors of the study found that nicotine inhibits the activity of one of the enzymes - histone deacetylases in the striatum, one of the areas of the brain associated with feelings of pleasure.

Inhibition of the activity of this enzyme increases the ability of cocaine FosB gene activation, which contributes to the formation dependence. Thus a similar effect of nicotine was shown only in the case where it mice received no earlier than the several days before cocaine.

This information will help scientists to further the fight against smoking in the campaign for the abandonment of youth addiction.

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