Nicotine Addiction and Autism
November 17, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
While studying drug abuse and addiction, researchers at the Ohio State University College of Medicine have found a link between nicotine addiction and autism. Neurexins are proteins that, along with neurologins, are thought to play a key role in the formation and functioning of synapses, of connections between nerve cells. In the new study, a protein made by the neurexin-1 gene was found to have a very particular role, as noted in today’s Science Daily:
The discovery identified a defining role for a protein made by the neurexin-1 gene, which is located in brain cells and assists in connecting neurons as part of the brain’s chemical communication system. The neurexin-1 beta protein’s job is to lure another protein, a specific type of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, to the synapses, where the receptor then has a role in helping neurons communicate signals among themselves and to the rest of the body.
This function is important in autism because previous research has shown that people with autism have a shortage of these nicotinic receptors in their brains. Meanwhile, scientists also know that people who are addicted to nicotine have too many of these receptors in their brains.
“If we were to use drugs that mimic the actions of nicotine at an early time in human brain development, would we begin to help those and other circuits develop properly and thus significantly mitigate the deficits in autism? This is a novel way of thinking about how we might be able to use drugs to approach autism treatment,” said Rene Anand, associate professor of pharmacology in Ohio State University’s College of Medicine and principal investigator of the research.
“It would not be a complete cure, but right now we know very little and have no drugs that tackle the primary causes of autism.”
Cholinergic agents are drugs which play a role in countering nicotine addiction in the brain. It’s speculated that these medications, after “retailor[ing],” might help autistic individuals by increasing the level of neurexin-1 beta protein in their brains. How this might specifically help autistic individuals is only alluded to—-perhaps it might be more helpful to think about how medications can, in some cases and in discrete ways, help some autistic individuals, over and above focusing on the notion of a drug that would “cure autism“?
The research was presented today at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C.
Hmmmm.
Well, I guess it’s not surprising, cigarettes are deadly. But, I know a lot of women who never smoked, and their kids are autistic. I cannot say for sure that their husbands didn’t smoke, though….I can’t seem to find that kind of info in the article.
It sure does explain some of the “addictive” qualities our kids have, though.
I will say that the tobacco companies put a lot of chemicals and stuff to addict people to cigarettes in them, a lot more than they did 20, 30 years ago. This might not just be a nicotine thing, you know? Would some chemical in the cigs also give the same reaction, for those whose parents didn’t smoke?
I was thinking about the “addictive” tendencies our kids can have (Charlie really gets stuck on certain foods, for one thing).
One of my students is doing research testing the nicotine content of “lite” cigarettes and he’s so far found that the packaging and the actual cigarette can “differ”……….
There certainly is more interesting research coming out lately. Moi, I don’t think that the article says anything about parental smoking and autism- it’s still early in the morning for me so I may be reading it wrong, but it seems to talk more about specific proteins and how they may work in similar ways for both autism and smoking. I know so few smokers these days that I’d be surprised if there was any kind of causation factor involved unless you could possibly go back to grandparents’ genetics or something.
Kristina- I’d agree with you that possibly the link between addiction and autism might be worth pursuing- for years, talking about our kids’ various obsessions, we tend to say that so and so is “addicted” to Barbies, Barney, chicken fingers, Cheerios, bracelets- whatever it is. It does seem very much like addictive behaviour in some ways.
Moi,
I think the study is theorizing that nicotine may reduce symptoms of autism, not cause or increase them. They’re surmising that a nicotine-like substance could have a positive effect on the developing brain of autistic children.
Next up: study the number of people who smoked 20, 30, 40 years ago vs. the amount who smoke today, then calculate the rise in autism diagnoses since everybody quit smoking (especially while pregnant).
Hello friends -
There are actually a few pilot studies of using drugs that manipulate nicotinic receptors, or closely related receptors with varying results. In any case, the area of cholinergic manipulation is likely to be a intensely studied area in autism and other neurological disorders.
- pD
Okay, so now we can feel guilty because we DIDN’T smoke during pregnancy…
pD,
Am I correct that even though this was stumbled on as a sidebar to nicotine addiction research, that getting stuck on nicotine or smoking, per se, might be something of a red herring?
Do you have any citations or sources for those pilot studies?
Hi Regan -
I would say that, yes, this doesn’t have much to do with nicotine addiction or smoking. I think what we have is a situation wherein the brain has receptor sites for bunches of neurotransmitters, and they’ve been named according to what things we had good names for what fit into them well. To this point, there are also cannabanoid receptors. I’m guessing here, so someone please correct me if you can.
For the pilot studies, check out:
“A prospective, open-label trial of galantamine in autistic disorder”
Also a few case studies:
“Galantamine in the treatment of adult autism: a report of three clinical cases”
There are a couple of other acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, or very similar agents, available that have been used in similarly small studies, but their names are escaping me right now. My wife is more up on this subject than myself. I’ll ask her to send some stuff my way.
This area excites me tremendously, though it may strike others as the opposite. To my mind, it is the beginning of being able to eliminate the notion that a ‘differently wired’ brain mandates that no treatments are available.
This is a big, big area. I’ve seen a couple of papers that have used animal models to show that maternal immune response can create offspring with similar receptor abnormalities as what is seen in autism.
HTH.
- pD
- pD
Hi Regan –
Also see:
“Memantine as adjunctive therapy in children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders: an observation of initial clinical response and maintenance tolerability”
and
“A retrospective study of memantine in children and adolescents with pervasive developmental disorders”
If I am not mistaken, Storkdoc is using memantine under the supervision of the author of the first paper, with generally pleasing results. Can’t remember exactly if memantine was what they were using though.
- pD
pD,
Interesting indeed.
Thanks!
pD…what you say about the receptors is true…they’re just named after what we first used to find them, generally.
For example, if I’m remembering correctly (you know how I hate to track down links), something in chocolate binds the “cannabinoid” receptors but not producing quite the intensity of reaction that THC does.
Smoking addiction is an uncontrollable dependence on the highly addictive nicotine stimulant present in tobacco products. Nicotine alters the levels of certain chemicals in the brain that causes smokers to experience pleasurable changes to mood and concentration. When a smoker stops smoking they crave the nicotine effects and can suffer withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, depression and irritable.
Cigarettes were the gateway drug for me. I started hanging with the wrong crowd smoking and one addiction lead to another. I ended up spending 22 years addicted to various drugs. Please read my article the gateway drug at:
http://www.soberliving.com/blog/the-real-gateway-drug-marijuana-vs.-cigarettes
Thank you