To treat tobacco addiction,a tea filter was developed and studied for smoking cessation.This work reports the smoking cessation effect of tea when it was used as a component of cigarette filters.In one trial it was found that after using the tea filters for 2 months,the volunteer smokers decreased their cigarette consumption by 56.5%,and 31.7% of them stopped smoking.This work identified a new method and material,tea filter and theanine,which inhibit tobacco and nicotine addiction and provide an effective strategy for treating tobacco addiction.
YAN JingQi1,2,DI XiaoJing1,4,LIU CaiYi3,ZHANG HuiMin3,HUANG XiouQin3,ZHANG JunJing1,2,ZHAO Yan5,ZHANG LongZe1,CHANG YanZhong4,LIANG YongLin2$,TAO Ran3 & ZHAO BaoLu1,21 State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science,Institute of Biophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100101,China
The benefits of tea for human health are widely accepted all over the world.L-Theanine,a nonprotein amino acid found in tea plants,is the major tea component that contributes to the unique pleasing taste of tea.L-Theanine has been shown to promote relaxation,enhance cognitive performance and act antagonistically against the excitement induced by caffeine.Recently,it was found that L-Theanine had inhibitory effect on nicotine dependence.This paper reviews the neuroprotective properties of L-Theanine and discusses the inhibitory effects of L-Theanine on nicotine dependence.
In this study, the inhibitory effect of L-theanine, an amino acid derivative of tea, on the rewarding effects of nicotine and its underlying mechanisms of action were studied. We found that L-theanine inhibited the rewarding effects of nicotine in a con- ditioned place preference (CPP) model of the mouse and reduced the excitatory status induced by nicotine in SH-SY5Y cells to the same extent as the nicotine receptor inhibitor dihydro-beta-erythroidine (DH E). Further studies using high performance liquid chromatography, western blotting and immunofluorescence staining analyses showed that L-theanine significantly inhibited nicotine-induced tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression and dopamine production in the midbrain of mice. L-theanine treatment also reduced the upregulation of the 4, 2 and 7 nicotine acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subunits induced by nico- tine in mouse brain regions that related to the dopamine reward pathway, thus decreasing the number of cells that could react to nicotine. In addition, L-theanine treatment inhibited nicotine-induced c-Fos expression in the reward circuit related areas of the mouse brain. Knockdown of c-Fos by siRNA inhibited the excitatory status of cells but not the upregulation of TH induced by nicotine in SH-SY5Y cells. Overall, the present study showed that L-theanine reduced the nicotine-induced reward effects via inhibition of the nAChR-dopamine reward pathway. These results may offer new therapeutic strategies for treatment of tobacco addiction.
DI XiaoJingYAN JingQiZHAO YanCHANG YanZhongZHAO BaoLu
