Smoking may feed brain tumors by using a brain chemical
Original title: GABA shunt metabolism drives smoking-related peri-neuronal brain metastasis by hijacking synaptic signaling.
How far along is this research?
- Lab cells
- Animals
- Review
- Tested in people
This was done in animals, not people. Most findings at this stage never become treatments.
The drugs were only tested in animals, not in people with these tumors.
The short version
In animals, a normal brain chemical helped smoking-linked brain tumors grow.
What was studied. Researchers studied cancer that spreads to the brain from other parts of the body. They tested nicotine in animal models and lab tissue, and they also looked at tissue from patients.
What they found. Patients with a smoking history were more likely to have tumors growing along nerves. Nicotine made brain immune cells send a signal to nerve cells, and those nerve cells released more GABA, a brain chemical. The tumors used that GABA as fuel, and two approved drugs, Tiagabine and NO-711, blocked the tumor from taking it in and slowed tumor growth in animals.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: This points to a possible new way to slow these tumors, mainly in people who smoked. The two drugs are already approved for other uses, so they may be easier to test in people.
What it doesn't mean: This does not mean a new treatment is ready. The work was done in animals and lab tissue, not in a trial of patients. No one has shown these drugs help people with brain tumors that spread. It is not a cure, and it is not care your doctor can offer for this today.
Source: PubMed, August 26, 2026 · Read the original
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