The drug varenicline, sold as a smoking-cessation medication under the brand name Chantix, may also have potential to help people stop drinking, new research suggests.

The Associated Press reported July 9 that researchers conducting animal studies found that the same receptor sites in the brain involved in nicotine addiction -- and acted upon by varenicline -- are involved in alcohol addiction.

The Pfizer drug blocks the receptor sites and thus any pleasurable effects from smoking.

"The biggest thrill is that this drug, which has already proved safe for people trying to stop smoking, is now a potential drug to fight alcohol dependence," said lead researcher Selena Bartlett of the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California at San Francisco.

Researchers are now working with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to study the effect of varenicline on alcohol craving and dependence among humans. "This is a drug that people are actually using. That's not trivial not at all," said Mark Egli of the medications development program at NIAAA. "There is plenty of animal research that looks pretty cool but there is no way those drugs are ever going to be used by human beings."

The study was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.