WASHINGTON (AP) -- A single pill appears to hold promise in curbing
the urges to both smoke and drink, according to researchers trying to
help people overcome addiction by targeting a pleasure center in the
brain.
A study published Monday suggests not just
nicotine but alcohol also
acts on the same locations in the brain.
The drug, called varenicline, already is sold to help smokers kick
the habit. New but preliminary research suggests it could gain a
second use in helping heavy drinkers quit, too.
Much further down the line, the tablets might be considered as a
treatment for addictions to everything from gambling to painkillers,
researchers said.
Several experts not involved in the study cautioned that there is no
such thing as a magic cure-all for addiction and that varenicline and
similar drugs may find more immediate use in treating diseases
including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Pfizer Inc. developed the drug specifically as a stop-smoking aid and
has sold it in the United States since August under the brand name
Chantix. Varenicline works by latching onto the same receptors in the
brain that nicotine binds to when inhaled in cigarette smoke, an
action that leads to the release of dopamine in the brain's pleasure
centers. Taking the drug blocks any inhaled nicotine from reinforcing
that effect.
A study published Monday suggests not just nicotine but alcohol also
acts on the same locations in the brain. That means a drug like
varenicline, which makes smoking less rewarding, could do the same for
drinking. Preliminary work, done in rats, suggests that is the case.
"The biggest thrill is that this drug, which has already proved safe
for people trying to stop smoking, is now a potential drug to fight
alcohol dependence," said Selena Bartlett, a University of California,
San Francisco neuroscientist who led the study. Details appear this
week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Pfizer provided the drug for the study, but was not otherwise involved
in the research.
More often than not, smoking and drinking go together -- an
observation pub-goers have made for hundreds of years. That a single
drug could work to curb both addictions isn't a given -- nor is it
surprising, said Christopher de Fiebre, an associate professor of
pharmacology and neuroscience at the University of North Texas Health
Science Center at Fort Worth.
"This is an extremely important paper and hopefully it will convince
the major funding agencies that they need to examine the interactions
between nicotine and alcohol to a greater extent than they have done
to date," said de Fiebre, who was not connected with the study.
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In fact, the University of California researchers, together with the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, are now planning
the first studies in humans of the drug's effectiveness in curbing
alcohol cravings and dependence, Bartlett said. That the drug is
already Food and Drug Administration-approved should speed things
along.
"This is a drug that people are actually using. That's not trivial --
not at all," said Mark Egli, co-leader of the medications development
program at the NIAAA, part of the National Institutes of Health.
"There is plenty of animal research that looks pretty cool but there
is no way those drugs are ever going to be used by human beings."
In the new study, researchers trained rats to drink alcohol and
measured the effect of varenicline once the animals became the
laboratory equivalent of heavy drinkers. They found the drug curbed
their drinking. Even when stopped, the animals resumed drinking but
didn't binge.
Just as varenicline doesn't work for all smokers, it's highly unlikely
it would for all drinkers.
"Is this going to be a cure-all? No, not for smoking or alcoholism
because both diseases are more complicated than a single target or
single genetic issue," said Allan Collins, a professor of pharmacology
at the University of Colorado who was not connected to the study.
Still, Collins, who's worked on the topic for decades, called the
drug's potential use in treating alcoholism a "no-brainer." And Egli
said it supports the emerging view that there is a common biological
basis for addictions to both alcohol and tobacco.
As for Pfizer, the New York company has yet to decide whether to seek
broader FDA approval for the drug, a spokesman said.
"Without having considerable more data on this it would be very
difficult for us to say we might pursue it or not. It's almost a wait-
and-see," said Pfizer's Stephen Lederer.
Study shows Chantix may work for alcohol addiction 
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