Miguel Barrueco Ferrero
Dormer head of the Pneumology Department at Salamanca Hospital and retired professor at the University of Salamanca
The article appears highly interesting. Its publication in Nature Communications, a high-impact journal, clearly attests to the rigour of the research. As for whether a therapy for nicotine addiction based on blocking the β3 subunit of the CHRNB3 gene is viable, speaking personally, I believe it is always advisable in medicine to interpret results with caution and to avoid raising false therapeutic expectations—for instance, regarding the short-term feasibility of a treatment for nicotine addiction such as the one proposed.
Similar studies involving other genes that also play a role in nicotine addiction have not ultimately led to therapeutic applications. The range of brain receptors and neurotransmitters (and the genes encoding them) involved in nicotine addiction is broad and complex, and to a large extent still not fully understood.