Monthly Updates: Monthly Update Central & Peripheral Nervous Systems: Beyond the tobacco debate: Dissecting out the therapeutic potential of nicotine

Abstract

While physical dependence and the negative behavioural consequences associated with withdrawal from nicotine represent a good portion of the continued widespread use of tobacco, the political and commercial furore surrounding the consumption of tobacco products and the associated impact on public health has predictably overshadowed the fact that cigarettes are used as self-medication devices for a large number of individuals on a daily basis. The high smoking rate in schizophrenics and epidemiological data showing a reduced incidence of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's Disease in smokers when smoking-associated illnesses are eliminated indicate that there may be therapeutic potential associated with some elements of the 5000 or so components of tobacco smoke. Specifically, novel modulators of the diversity of nicotinic ligand-gated ion channels present in the nervous system, both central and peripheral, that are termed cholinergic channel modulators (ChCMs) to avoid the negative connotations associated with the use of nicotine in its tobacco form. ChCMs may have the potential to treat a variety of disease states associated with attentional deficits (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, age associated mental impairment), neurodegeneration (Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases), chronic pain, prostate dysfunction, inflammatory bowel disease and obstructive sleep apnoea.