More than Smoke and Patches: The Quest for Pharmacotherapies to Treat Tobacco Use Disorder.

More than Smoke and Patches: The Quest for Pharmacotherapies to Treat Tobacco Use Disorder. Pharmacol Rev. 2020 Apr;72(2):527-557 Authors: Moerke MJ, McMahon LR, Wilkerson JL Abstract Tobacco use is a persistent public health issue. It kills up to half its users and is the cause of nearly 90% of all lung cancers. The main psychoactive component of tobacco is nicotine, primarily responsible for its abuse-related effects. Accordingly, most pharmacotherapies for smoking cessation target nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), nicotine's major site of action in the brain. The goal of the current review is twofold: first, to provide a brief overview of the most commonly used behavioral procedures for evaluating smoking cessation pharmacotherapies and an introduction to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of nicotine important for consideration in the development of new pharmacotherapies; and second, to discuss current and potential future pharmacological interventions aimed at decreasing tobacco use. Attention will focus on the potential for allosteric modulators of nAChRs to offer an improvement over currently approved pharmacotherapies. Additionally, given increasing public concern for the potential health consequences of using electronic nicotine delivery systems, which allow users to inhale aerosolized solutions as an alternative to smoking tobacco, an effort will be made throughout this review to address the implicatio...
Source: Pharmacological Reviews - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Tags: Pharmacol Rev Source Type: research