14 DAY TRIAL // A report recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society describes a bacterium that researchers think could help smokers kick the habit.
The bacterium, called Pseudomonas putida and discovered by scientists in the soil of tobacco fields, feeds on nicotine, a potent stimulant drug that makes smoking, well, addictive.
To break down tobacco waste and get the nicotine it needs to stay alive, this bacterium produces an enzyme dubbed NicA2. It is this enzyme that could make it easier for smokers to quit.
Thus, researchers think NicA2 could be used to develop drugs designed to fight addiction to smoking by flushing out nicotine from the body.
Mind you, the idea actually makes sense
As noted, it is the nicotine that is naturally occurring in tobacco that, being a powerful stimulant drug, makes smoking addictive. Hence, it's safe to assume that targeting it would make it easier for people to quit this vice.
Researchers say that, were it possible to use the NicA2 enzyme produced by Pseudomonas putida or at least some chemical sibling of it to remove nicotine from smokers' blood, this would essentially do away with the addictive component of smoking.
There would be no nicotine left to reach the brain and so people would no longer feel the effects of this drug. Consequently, the urge to light up would simply disappear.
Specialists think this method would work better than the nicotine patches or the e-cigarettes people looking to ditch smoking turn to in an attempt to gain some control over their nicotine addiction.
The enzyme has so far only been tested on mice
In a series of experiments, researchers administered NicA2 harvested from a lab-grown Pseudomonas putida population to several mice carrying loads of nicotine in their blood.
In just 15 minutes, the rodent's blood was completely nicotine-free. Ordinarily, it would have taken the animals at least about 3 hours to flush the drug out of their system all on their own, EurekAlert explains.
Efforts are now underway to determine whether this rather peculiar treatment for nicotine addiction could also work on people and whether it could, in fact, help smokers quit.