[Gabz]

Thanks for the clarifications, Lock!!!!!

[lockjaw02]

No sweat, Gabz. It was fun rummaging through my files to see how much I forgot I had since I hadn't engaged anyone on those issues about cotinine measurements in quite some time. Here's an interesting quote I got concerning genetics and nicotine metabolization from a paper entitled, "Pharmacogenomics, the Human Genome Project and the Practice of Medicine," written a few years ago by Ian J. Mehr, PhD, MBA.

"Possibly one of the most intriguing correlations in the CYP450 family is between polymorphisms in the 2A6 gene and smoking. The 2A6 gene is responsible for the oxidation of nicotine and plays a major role in nicotine metabolism, which leads to the speculation that there could be a genetic role in nicotine dependence. Support for this hypothesis was found in a study that demonstrated individuals with defective 2A6 alleles were underrepresented in a group of addicted smokers. Furthermore, smokers with defective 2A6 alleles smoked significantly fewer cigarettes."

Remember that from our arguments with Ginny on Yahoo? That's when Spinner told Ginny, the born again anti-smoking former smoker, the reason why she couldn't stand smoking anymore after smoking for ten years was because she had defective genes and thus couldn't metabolize nicotine efficiently. Whatta hoot to hear Ginny holler. Ahhh, memories...