A common biological basis of obesity and nicotine addiction
Open accessAbstract
Smoking influences body weight such that smokers weigh less than non-smokers and smoking cessation often leads to weight increase. The relationship between body weight and smoking is partly explained by the effect of nicotine on appetite and metabolism. However, the brain reward system is involved in the control of the intake of both food and tobacco. We evaluated the effect of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) affecting body mass index (BMI) on smoking behavior, and tested the 32 SNPs identified in a meta-analysis for association with two smoking phenotypes, smoking initiation (SI) and the number of cigarettes smoked per day (CPD) in an Icelandic sample (N=34,216 smokers). Combined according to their effect on BMI, the SNPs correlate with both SI (r=0.019, P=0.00054) and CPD (r=0.032, P=8.0 × 10(-7)). These findings replicate in a second large data set (N=127,274, thereof 76,242 smokers) for both SI (P=1.2 × 10(-5)) and CPD (P=9.3 × 10(-5)). Notably, the variant most strongly associated with BMI (rs1558902-A in FTO) did not associate with smoking behavior. The association with smoking behavior is not due to the effect of the SNPs on BMI. Our results strongly point to a common biological basis of the regulation of our appetite for tobacco and food, and thus the vulnerability to nicotine addiction and obesity.
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- Authors
- Thorgeirsson, T. E., Gudbjartsson, D. F., Sulem, P., Besenbacher, S., Styrkarsdottir, U., Thorleifsson, G., Walters, G. B., TAG Consortium, Oxford-GSK Consortium, ENGAGE consortium, Furberg, H., Sullivan, P. F., Marchini, J., McCarthy, M. I., Steinthorsdottir, V, Thorsteinsdottir, U., & Stefansson, K.
- Affiliations
- deCODE Genetics (Iceland) (IS)
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US)
- Centre for Human Genetics (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Thorgeirsson, T E
- Venue
- Translational Psychiatry
- Published
- 2013-10-01
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- e308-e308
- ISSN
- 2158-3188 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3818010
- OpenAlex
- W2115548777
- Cited by
- 71
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 6
- FWCI
- 5.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- www.springer.com/tdm (unspecified)
- Locations
- Translational Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Amsterdam UMC (VU Amsterdam) - Institutional Repository (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (acceptedVersion)
- IRIS (submittedVersion)
- RePub (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Site cant be reached (submittedVersion)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Spiral (Imperial College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (090532)
- European Commission (LSHM‐CT2004‐005166, 251592, FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IAPP, 201413)
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA022522, R01DA017932, R01DA018673)
- FP7 People: Marie-Curie Actions
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- obesity, nicotine dependence, smoking behavior, smoking initiation, cigarettes per day, body mass index, single nucleotide polymorphisms, FTO, appetite regulation, brain reward system, genetic association
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Iceland, Obesity, Smoking, Tobacco Use Disorder, Body Mass Index, Behavior, Addictive, Age of Onset, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
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