Originally published October 24 2005
New research studies how cocaine impacts brain function
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that cocaine impacts the brain by altering circuitry at a genetic level.
Such findings suggest possible new directions for treatments for addiction to the drug, they said.
In a study available online and in the Oct. 20 issue of Neuron, UT Southwestern researchers used rodents to pinpoint an important molecular mechanism that switches genes "on" in the part of the brain involved in drug-induced rewards.
They also determined that cocaine, through a process called "chromatin remodeling," alters the normal biochemical processes that allow these specific genes to be turned on and off.
"Our study provides a fundamentally new level of analysis by which we can better understand the actions of cocaine in brain-reward regions at the molecular level," said senior author Dr. Eric Nestler, chairman of UT Southwestern's Department of Psychiatry.
In order for genes to be activated, or "expressed," proteins called transcription factors have to be able to access the gene and copy its instructions for making other proteins.
Normally, histones undergo chemical changes to convert them from tightly binding a gene to a state where they are less bound and no longer inhibit gene expression.
Another discovery was that chronic cocaine use causes chemical changes to a different type of histone than acute cocaine use does, which may help explain why the behavioral effects of acute versus chronic cocaine use in people are so different, Dr. Nestler said.
Researchers learned, through administering single doses and repeated doses of cocaine to groups of rats and mice, that some of the changes in histones caused by the drug are quite stable, lasting for more than a week after the last cocaine dosage.
This study, however, ventures a step further, providing evidence that histone changes on particular genes are a paramount part of the addiction process.
The researchers also showed that they could reduce or enhance cocaine's behavioral effects in animals by directly and artificially influencing histone changes with different types of chemicals.
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