Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday August 03 2016, @11:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the quitting-is-easy...staying-quit-is-hard dept.

A protein is found to regulate cocaine-craving after withdrawal

Neuroscientists know that cocaine addiction and withdrawal rewire the brain. But figuring out how to disrupt those changes to treat addiction requires an extremely detailed understanding of how those changes occur. Now, in a paper published recently in Biological Psychiatry, researchers at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo have identified an important piece in the puzzle.

Led by David M. Dietz, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at UB, the team has discovered that a protein in the brain's reward center, the nucleus accumbens, regulates genes that help drive the craving for cocaine after a period of withdrawal. [...] In the current experiments, laboratory animals self-administered cocaine and then experienced abstinence for seven days. After the abstinence period, the researchers saw increased expression of a protein called BRG1 and increased interaction between it and the transcription factor SMAD3.

"We noticed that this transcription factor, which was critical in mediating relapse-like behaviors, was also known to interact with a molecule like BRG1 in other cells in the body," explained Dietz. "We wanted to know if BRG1 and this transcription factor also interact following cocaine addiction and if those interactions helped regulate genes in these individuals." Cocaine not only changes the expression of BRG1, the UB researchers learned, but it also changes how BRG1 interacts with transcription factors known to be essential in mediating gene expression following cocaine use. "In this way, BRG1 facilitates how transcription factors regulate genes after cocaine use and withdrawal," said Dietz.

BRG1 in the Nucleus Accumbens Regulates Cocaine-Seeking Behavior (DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2016.04.020)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday August 03 2016, @03:28PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday August 03 2016, @03:28PM (#383615)

    The thing is that if this could be turned into a relatively inexpensive treatment, we could get a rehab problem that actually works, as opposed to what we have now, which is psychologically- and religiously-based programs that do more to teach addicts how to hide their addiction than how to actually avoid the drug.

    Do that, and make it part of treating opiate addiction as a medical problem rather than a criminal or moral problem, and the demand for drugs will go down dramatically. Which means most of the drug dealers will go out of business or at least switch to something less harmful. Which would also reduce violent crime, because where there's a black market there is violence to enforce deals.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday August 03 2016, @05:55PM

    by TheRaven (270) on Wednesday August 03 2016, @05:55PM (#383691) Journal

    Which means most of the drug dealers will go out of business or at least switch to something less harmful.

    What makes you think that the thing that they decide to sell instead of opiates will be less harmful?

    --
    sudo mod me up
    • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday August 03 2016, @07:01PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday August 03 2016, @07:01PM (#383715)

      What makes you think that the thing that they decide to sell instead of opiates will be less harmful?

      Because most other drugs currently out there are less harmful. For example, hallucinogens like mushrooms and LSD are much less addictive. Pot has never led to an overdose by anyone.

      (Full disclosure: I've never done any of this stuff myself, but I'm buddies with some folks who were hanging out with Timothy Leary back in the day.)

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday August 04 2016, @12:27AM

    by frojack (1554) on Thursday August 04 2016, @12:27AM (#383840) Journal

    First someone would have to explain what exactly the effect of BRG1 actually is.

    "We wanted to know if BRG1 and this transcription factor also interact following cocaine addiction and if those interactions helped regulate genes in these individuals." ... that a protein in the brain regulates genes that help drive the craving for cocaine after a period of withdrawal

    Is that chemistry-code-speak for "BRG1 drives the craving to higher levels", or does "BRG1 reduce craving"?

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
  • (Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Thursday August 04 2016, @01:06AM

    by art guerrilla (3082) on Thursday August 04 2016, @01:06AM (#383858)

    there already IS a relatively inexpensive treatment for cocaine addiction, it's called cocaine...
    the fact that cocaine is expensive has NOTHING to do with its production, and EVERYTHING to do with its illegality...

    a dirty little secret not talked about much, is one of THE largest cohorts of cocaine and opiate addicts, are doctors, dentists and the like...
    the thing is, they have access to a relatively inexpensive, dependable supply, and if they keep on an even keel, they can be addicts their entire careers, and no one is the wiser...

    another factoid i like to annoy moral scolds who tsk tsk 'drugs, m'kay', is that caffeine is more deadly than cocaine, LD 50-wise...