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Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Creating Dynamic Images of Short-lived Dopamine Fluctuations with lp-ntPET: Dopamine Movies of Cigarette Smoking
Published on: August 6, 2013
Prospective association of dopamine-related polymorphisms with smoking cessation in general care
Lutz P Breitling1, Dorothee Twardella, Michael M Hoffmann
1Division of Clinical Epidemiology & Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center, Bergheimer Str 20, D-69115 Heidelberg, Germany. l.breitling@dkfz-heidelberg.de
Aims:
Genetic contributions to nicotine dependence have been demonstrated repeatedly, but the relevance of individual polymorphisms for smoking cessation remains controversial.
Materials & Methods:
We examined genotypes at two dopamine-related loci, DRD2/ANKK1 (rs1800497) and DBH (rs77905), in 577 heavy smokers participating in a prospective study of smoking cessation in general care in Germany.
Results:
Smoking status after 1 year was significantly associated with DRD2/ANKK1, odds of abstinence being 4.4-fold (95% CI: 1.5-12.9) increased in TT- versus CC-homozygous subjects (p = 0.008). No effect was observed for the DBH genotype. The smoking cessation drug bupropion appeared to be particularly effective in CC-homozygotes (among CC subjects there was a 28% higher cessation probability among those taking buproprion; among T carrier subjects there was an increase only by 12%).
Conclusion:
The large effects observed for DRD2/ANKK1 might be related to our study design, in which individual therapy was decided by the physician. Further studies are needed to clarify the genetic effects of DRD2/ANKK1 especially in 'real-life' settings outside clinical trials.
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Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms-SNPs

