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DRD2 Gene Predicts Success in Quitting Smoking

DRD2 Gene Predicts Success in Quitting Smoking

DRD2 Gene Predicts Success in Quitting Smoking

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on August 30th, 2005

Researchers at the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center (TTURC) of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found gene-dependent differences in people’s responses to anti-smoking drug therapy. The drugs examined in this study were Zyban (buproprion), a drug that acts at the neurological level to reduce nicotine craving without nicotine replacement, transdermal nicotine patch, and nicotine nasal spray.

In two randomized clinical trials, they found that smokers with two copies of the DRD2 -141 Ins C variant of the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene were significantly more likely to still be tobacco-free at the six-month follow-up if they used Zyban as compared to smokers carrying the Del C variant. Smokers carrying the Del C variant had significantly higher quit rates if they used nicotine replacement therapy instead.

“This study provides new evidence that genetic differences in the brain-reward pathways of smokers may reveal whether they would benefit more from Zyban or nicotine replacement therapy as an aid to quitting smoking,” said lead author Professor Caryn Lerman, PhD, Director of the TTURC and Associate Director for Cancer Control Population Sciences at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center.
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