From
Bloomberg:
Smoking cigarettes, even with its health risks, has long been used as a way to shed pounds. Now scientists have discovered how the habit suppresses appetite, pointing the way for potential weight-loss drugs.
Nicotine, the addictive substance in cigarettes, quells appetite by latching to certain brain receptors that crank up the activity of a system of neurons influencing food desire, according to a study in the journal Science. Scientists identified this pathway as the hypothalamic melanocortin system.
In experiments with mice, the researchers determined which nerves in the brain are affected by nicotine, suggesting a pathway for weight-loss drugs, said Marina Picciotto, the study’s lead author and professor of psychiatry at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Drugs might be developed that mimic the effects of nicotine on the brain’s appetite system, now that researchers know where to aim, she said.