(Press-News.org) BOSTON–Eleven million U.S. adults use e-cigarettes to vape nicotine, and about half of them say that they want to stop, but many have trouble doing so because nicotine is an addictive drug.
A plant-based medication called cytisinicline may be an effective therapy to help them stop vaping, according to the results of a new clinical trial co-led by an investigator from Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system. The trial’s findings are published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
In the double-blind randomized clinical trial, 160 adults who vaped nicotine but did not currently smoke cigarettes were assigned to take either oral cytisinicline or placebo tablets for 12 weeks. All participants had weekly behavioral support to stop vaping.
At the end of treatment, participants receiving cytisinicline were more than twice as likely as those receiving placebo to have successfully abstained from vaping for weeks 9 to 12 (31.8% vs 15.1%, p=.04). The drug was well tolerated, with comparable rates of side effects between the groups. The study was conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital and 4 other sites.
“No medication has been approved by the FDA for vaping cessation in the United States,” said lead author Nancy A. Rigotti, MD, director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Tobacco Research and Treatment Center and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Our study indicates that cytisinicline might be an option to fill this gap and help adult vapers to stop using e-cigarettes.”
The team tested cytisinicline for vaping because the drug binds to nicotine receptors on brain cells. In their previous clinical trial, the research team found that cytisinicline helped people to quit smoking traditional cigarettes. They hypothesized that it might also help people to stop vaping nicotine. “The results of our study need to be confirmed in a larger trial with longer follow-up,” said Rigotti, “but they are promising.”
Authorship: Nancy A. Rigotti, MD; Neal L. Benowitz, MD; Judith J. Prochaska, PhD, MPH; Daniel F. Cain, BSc; Juli Ball, MS; Anthony Clarke, PhD; Brent A. Blumenstein, PhD; and Cindy Jacobs, PhD, MD.
Disclosures: Dr. Rigotti has consulted with Achieve Life Sciences and MGH has received research grants for clinical trials of cytisinicline for smoking cessation. Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at JAMA Internal Medicine.
Funding: The trial was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse and by Achieve Life Sciences, a pharmaceutical company that is developing cytisinicline as a treatment for nicotine dependence.
Paper cited: Rigotti NA et al. “Cytisinicline for Vaping Cessation in Adults Using Nicotine E-Cigarettes—The ORCA-V1 Randomized Clinical Trial.” JAMA Internal Medicine
DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2024.1313
###
About Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The Mass General Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with annual research operations of more than $1 billion and comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments. MGH is a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system.
END
– By Alison Hatt
In the ongoing quest to make electronic devices ever smaller and more energy efficient, researchers want to bring energy storage directly onto microchips, reducing the losses incurred when power is transported between various device components. To be effective, on-chip energy storage must be able to store a large amount of energy in a very small space and deliver it quickly when needed – requirements that can’t be met with existing technologies.
Addressing this challenge, scientists ...
Norman, OK – Talayeh Razzaghi, an assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Oklahoma, has been awarded a Faculty Early Career Development Program award from the National Science Foundation for her work titled “Personalized Maternal Care Decision Support System for Underserved Populations.”
Known as a CAREER award, Razzaghi was awarded $496,732 to research machine learning-based clinical decision support tools for early preeclampsia detection in maternal ...
New research on desert isopods' dietary preferences is the revelation of the complex factors influencing their food choices. By understanding how these animals meticulously regulate their nutrient intake and prefer biological soil crusts over plant litter, the study highlights the intricate dynamics of trophic interactions. Understanding the dietary preferences of desert isopods sheds light on the intricate interplay between organisms and their environment, informing ecosystem management and conservation strategies.
New study sheds light on the intricate nutritional and functional ...
(Toronto, May 6, 2024) A new study published in JMIR Mental Health sheds light on the promising role of virtual reality (VR) in treating major depressive disorder (MDD). Titled "Examining the Efficacy of Extended Reality–Enhanced Behavioral Activation for Adults With Major Depressive Disorder: Randomized Controlled Trial," the research, led by Dr Margot Paul and team from Stanford University, unveiled the effectiveness of extended reality (XR)–enhanced behavioral activation (XR-BA) in easing symptoms of depression.
MDD affects millions worldwide, and access to evidence-based psychotherapies remains a challenge for many. Traditional treatments ...
English learners are, on average, less likely to graduate high school in four years than students who never needed to learn English in school. But social identities like race and gender make a difference, and some groups of English learners are actually more likely to graduate, according to a new study by a team of education researchers at NYU and the University of Houston.
For instance, young women who ever learned English in school are more likely to graduate in four years than young men who did not. Similarly, Black English learners tend to have better four-year graduation rates than Black peers who never needed to learn English ...
SAN ANTONIO — May 6, 2024 —The American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) has named Southwest Research Institute’s Matthew Herron, M.S., P.E., CSP, CPE, its 2024 Safety Professional of the Year. The award is presented annually to an ASSP member who demonstrates outstanding achievement in the occupational safety and health (OSH) field while also advancing the OSH profession overall.
“It’s a great honor to be recognized by the ASSP as Safety Professional of the Year,” said Herron, a lead safety engineer in SwRI’s Mechanical Engineering Division. “I firmly ...
About The Study: Children diagnosed with hypertension had a higher associated long-term risk of major adverse cardiac events compared with controls without hypertension. Improved detection, follow-up, and control of pediatric hypertension may reduce the risk of adult cardiovascular disease.
Authors: Rahul Chanchlani, M.B.B.S., M.D., M.Sc., of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.1543)
Editor’s ...
KEY TAKEAWAYS
BRILLIANCE trial results showed 11 out of 14 treated participants experienced some improvements in vision and quality of life measures.
CRISPR-based therapy was found safe with no dose-limiting toxicities reported.
Mass Eye and Ear researchers say their findings support continued research and clinical trials of CRISPR therapies for inherited retinal disorders.
BOSTON- (MAY 6, 2024) Results from a groundbreaking clinical trial of CRISPR gene editing in 14 individuals ...
PORTLAND, Oregon – About 79% of clinical trial participants experienced measurable improvement after receiving experimental, CRISPR-based gene editing that is designed to fix a rare form of blindness, according to a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“This trial shows CRISPR gene editing has exciting potential to treat inherited retinal degeneration,” said Mark Pennesi, M.D., Ph.D., a corresponding author on the paper, an ophthalmologist and Oregon Health & Science University’s lead scientist for the Phase ...
PULLMAN, Wash. -- Cybersecurity programs vary dramatically across the country, a review has found. The authors argue that program leaders should work with professional societies to make sure graduates are well trained to meet industry needs in a fast-changing field.
In the review, published in the Proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, a Washington State University-led research team found a shortage of research in evaluating the instructional approaches being used to teach cybersecurity. The authors also contend that programs ...
