BRAIN SUBSTANCE LINKED TO NICOTINE ADDICTION

Scientists have identified a chemical compound that explains how nicotine
becomes addictive and could help point the way to new drugs for people who
want to stop smoking.

"For the first time, one particular molecule has ben shown to be critical
for the events leading up to nicotine addiction," Marina Picciotto said.

She and colleagues at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, the Karolinska
Institute in Stockholm and the research arm of Glaxo-Wellcome in Geneva
found the first of 11 subunits, or molecules, of the nicotine receptor in
the brain of mice. Humans have the same subunit.