Posted by Kang Chong Heng

This is an article i found on Channel NewsAsia website. It is regarding about a research of how exactly nicotine acts as an appetite suppressant in the brain, a finding that could one day help in the fight against obesity. Smokers tend to be thinner than people who don't smoke, and the study led by Yale University and published in the journal Science describes how nicotine activates certain neurons in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. Those neurons tell the body when it's had enough to eat, according to senior author Marina Picciotto, a professor of neurobiology and pharmacology at Yale. Researchers made the discovery by studying mice, but are hopeful that similar receptors can be isolated in humans, too. A research scientist in Picciotto's lab was studying nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which are on the surface of neurons, to see if an experimental drug to treat depression would have any effect. A series of experiments show that the drug could turn on a certain nicotine receptor which then told a subset of neurons in the hypothalamus- called pro- opiomelanocortin or POMC cells- that dinner time was over. In my opinion, not all smokers are thinner than those who don't smoke. There are some fat smokers as well, not in order to lose weight.