Los hallazgos del estudio proporcionan una base sólida para seguir estudiando la abstinencia de nicotina.
Una nueva investigación arroja luz sobre la nicotina y el brebaje matutino.
Algunos fumadores encuentran que su primer cigarrillo del día es menos placentero sin una taza de café. Sin embargo, eso puede no ser solo un hábito matutino. Según investigadores de la Universidad de Florida, los compuestos en los granos de café tostados pueden ayudar a disminuir el impacto de los antojos matutinos de nicotina.
Los investigadores encontraron dos compuestos en el café que influyen directamente en ciertos receptores de nicotina de alta sensibilidad en el cerebro en un estudio basado en células. Estos receptores cerebrales en los fumadores pueden volverse hipersensibles después de una noche de abstinencia de nicotina.
Aunque los hallazgos publicados recientemente aún no se han probado en humanos, representan un avance significativo en nuestra comprensión de cómo el café y los cigarrillos afectan los receptores de nicotina en el cerebro, según Roger L. Papke, Ph.D., profesor de farmacología en el[{” attribute=””>University of Florida College of Medicine. For most individuals, the feel-good component of coffee is caffeine, although smokers may get another kind of boost.
“Many people like caffeine in the morning but there are other molecules in coffee that may explain why cigarette smokers want their coffee,” Papke said.
The researchers applied a dark-roasted coffee solution to cells that express a specific human nicotine receptor. The researchers came to the conclusion that an organic chemical compound in coffee may help restore the nicotine receptor dysfunction that causes nicotine cravings in smokers.
The findings have led Papke to a broader hypothesis: One of the compounds in brewed coffee, known as n-MP, may help lessen morning cravings for nicotine.
Papke said he was intrigued by the idea that nicotine-dependent smokers associate tobacco use with coffee in the morning and alcohol in the evening. Although alcohol’s effect on nicotine receptors in the brain has been thoroughly researched, the receptors’ interaction with coffee has been studied less.
“Many people look for coffee in the morning because of the caffeine. But was the coffee doing anything else to smokers? We wanted to know if there were other things in coffee that were affecting the brain’s nicotine receptors,” Papke said.
The findings, he said, provide a good foundation for behavioral scientists who could further study nicotine withdrawal in animal models.
Reference: “Coffee and cigarettes: Modulation of high and low sensitivity α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors by n-MP, a biomarker of coffee consumption” by Roger L. Papke, Madison Karaffa, Nicole A. Horenstein and Clare Stokes, 28 June 2022, Neuropharmacology.
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2022.109173
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
