There is a new species of bacteria found by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) for a kind of enzyme it produces that can be used as an interfering substance to achieve smoking cessation. This finding will be
of considerable significance for its effectiveness and harmlessness to human health in quitting cigarettes as smoking has been listed as one of the most common health killers and a fast and painless medical way is needed by the public.
Scientists found the bacteria- pseudomonas putida in tobacco soil. There is a special enzyme found in their bodies which is named as NicA2 by the scientists. With the application of NicA2, organism will take nicotine the main harmful substance from smoking as regular carbon and nitrogen source and then degrade them.
NicA2 can deactivate nicotine before it reaches brain and triggers the special sensation that can bring a certain comfort both physically and mentally. According to the early researches, that the sensation formed in brain is the main reason that why people are addicted to smoking. Once the source of such sensation is stopped, there will be less motivation for the smoker to depend on it for pressure release or pure comfort.
It suggested that NicA2 is of high effectiveness in the deactivation of nicotine as it showed in the research that about 50% of nicotine absorbed by the smokers can be made inactive within ten minutes. Research also showed that with a higher dose of NicA2, the nicotine can be completely removed in a shorter time span. Another good finding about NicA2 is that till present there is no side effect presented by the use of it as a drug to help quit smoking.
Furtherly, scientists are developing a more stable form of NicA2 compound, to make it able to be kept in the room temperature for weeks even longer as a basic condition for being a smoking cessation drug.
However there are still some challenges needed to be overcome to achieve a mature smoking cessation drug with the newly found enzyme as the research is still in its early phase and there is much work to be done to probe more about it, besides producing NicA2 in scale will be one of the main difficulties. Besides, drug design process also needs time.
This finding makes NicA2 a healthy and painless potential drug for giving up smoking, which is what the whole human kind has been looking for for a long time.