Nicotine Addiction Cigarette addiction is responsible for over four million deaths every year. The question most people ask is: why don't people put down their cigarettes? Well, the answer to this frequently asked question is nicotine. Nicotine is a neurotransmitter that targets certain receptors in the brain. It is a chemical messenger that induces feelings of pleasure. When someone takes a drag on a cigarette, they ingest harmful chemicals that can cause cancer and other serious health risks. They inhale these chemicals only to get one thing and one thing only, nicotine. Treating your addiction becomes more and more difficult with every puff of cigarette you take. When nicotine is consumed, it communicates with the brain and is absorbed into receptor molecules. For years, doctors have conducted hundreds of experimental studies on the human brain to help understand how these chemicals affect the brain neurologically and which areas of the brain are affected. . This goal has not yet been achieved due to the large amount of receptor cells in the brain. In a study conducted at the California Institute of Technology by Andrew Tapper, Professor Allan Collins of the University of Colorado, several colleagues and Henry A. Lester, the Bren Professor of Biology of Caltech University, revealed that nicotine affects a small subunit of the brain called alpha four. This subunit of the brain increases levels of pleasure, response, sensitization, and increases tolerance to multiple doses of the drug nicotine. Many people don't know what nicotine does inside the brain. This is how it works when nicotine reacts with brain cells. It creates nerve impulses that chemically jump across a gap between two different nerve cells. This action is called a synapse. The neurotransmitter acetylcholine is used in this process and is used to influence specific receptors in the brain that target post-synaptic nerve cells. After this process, the brain messenger of well-being, dopamine, is released. This chemical is released in the brain creating an extreme high. Acetylcholine is therefore supposed to decrease dopamine after completing its task. The drug disguises itself as acetylcholine causing the dopamine release process to last minutes rather than milliseconds. In several laboratory studies performed on mice in the 1990s, results concluded that nicotine also affects subunits of the brain labeled beta two. Knowing how this drug affects many different subunits shows how complicated it is to find a cure for addiction to this drug.