January 25, 2017.
According to a study conducted by a team of researchers from the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), in partnership with scientists from the Institut Pasteur and the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm), nicotine could pave the way for a new treatment for schizophrenia.
Nicotine relieves side effects of treatments
The cigarette would at least have a positive effect on health, it would be an effective bulwark against schizophrenia. This is in any case what reveals a study conducted by French researchers and published in the scientific journal Nature Medicine. According to this work, nicotine is believed to have a calming effect on brain cells in people with schizophrenia.
More precisely, nicotine would have a direct impact on ” restoring normal activity of nerve cells involved in psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia The researchers said in a statement. The latter had observed that patients with schizophrenia used to smoke to relieve some of the side effects of their treatments and used cigarettes as a means of self-medication.
Nicotine stimulates deficient areas of the brain
To understand this phenomenon, the researchers introduced into mice the gene responsible for the cognitive disorders observed in schizophrenics. They were thus able to observe that when they administered nicotine to these rodents, it stimulated deficient areas of the brain of schizophrenic patients.
Repeated administration of nicotine ” suggests a possible therapeutic target for the treatment of schizophrenia », Rejoiced Prof. Uwe Maskos, main author of the article. But for nicotine to be used for treatments, it will be necessary that the therapeutic molecule presents ” the same form as nicotine without having the harmful effects “, such as addiction, cellular aging or cardiovascular disease.
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