Research
Hormonal
Liraglutide attenuates nicotine-induced dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), potentially reducing the addictive properties of nicotine while maintaining weight loss benefits.
GLP-1 drugs might reduce the 'high' or addictive feeling associated with nicotine, which could make it easier for smokers to quit or use nicotine-based therapies without the usual addiction risks.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Interestingly, the nicotine-induced increase was dampened by co-treatment with liraglutide that by itself had no influence on the fluorescent signal... it could be speculated that the GLP-1R-induced blunting of nicotine-induced dopamine signaling in the NAc may circumvent some of the addictive properties of nicotine and thus enhance the safety profile of the combination approach.
Why this rating
Evidence is strong in mice using fiber photometry, but the clinical relevance to addiction reduction is speculative.
Source
GLP-1 and nicotine combination therapy engages hypothalamic and mesolimbic pathways to reverse obesity
Sarah Falk et al. · Cell Reports · 2023
DOI 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112466
mechanism_onlyCited 33×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Co-administration of the GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide and nicotine synergistically lowers body weight in obese mice by simultaneously reducing food intake and increasing energy expenditure.Good
- GLP-1 receptor agonism (liraglutide) sensitizes hypothalamic POMC neurons and ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopaminergic neurons to nicotine, increasing their excitability and contributing to weight loss.Good
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