Genetic link to nicotine addiction uncovered

Here's the latest in a long line of studies linking addiction and dependence to genetics. Those crazy scientists have now found that smoking addiction and lung cancer are directly linked to a specific group of gene variants.

"This is kind of a double whammy gene," said Christopher Amos, a professor of epidemiology at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and author of one of the studies. "It also makes you more likely to be dependent on smoking and less likely to quit smoking."

A smoker who inherits this genetic variation from both parents has an 80 percent greater chance of lung cancer than a smoker without the variants, the researchers reported. And that same smoker on average lights up two extra cigarettes a day and has a much harder time quitting than smokers who don't have these genetic differences.

The three studies, funded by governments in the U.S. and Europe, is being published Thursday in the journals Nature and Nature Genetics.

I scoured a couple of articles for the name of the gene variant but couldn't find it. However, the studies have nailed this genetic factor down in some heavy detail. Check the story for more info on how heredity links to nicotine addiction.