Anti-tumoral activity of the human-specific duplicated form of α7-nicotinic receptor subunit in tobacco-induced lung cancer progression

•A novel anti-tumor function for the human-specific duplicated CHRFAM7A gene in NSCLC.•CHRFAM7A encodes for dupα7, a duplicated form of the α7 nicotinic receptor subunit.•Dupα7 exhibits its anti-tumor activity in human NSCLC, both in vitro and in vivo.•Dupα7 inhibits the tobacco-activated oncogenic function of the ancestral α7 protein.