A gene that facilitates drug addiction has been identified by researchers at ULB

Researchers at the ULB have highlighted the role of a gene in cocaine addiction. In other words, by removing this gene, it removes the addiction to the drug.

Experiments were conducted on a mouse deprived of this gene and the results are very encouraging for the millions of people in the world who are addicted (they would be 15 million, in Europe alone).

Alban de Kerchove d'Exarde is director of research at the FNRS and the ULB, he explains us this discovery: "We found a gene (and they are not many), when we inactivate it the reinforcing effects of the drug are completely inhibited, that is to say that the drug no longer has the risk of inducing the desire to resume and fall into addiction with all the harmful consequences that we know (…) The next step is to understand the mechanism that brings to this major feature " to allow to transpose it to humans, which is not yet possible.

Combating addiction is a very expensive public health issue with current methods. Drug addiction treatments represent more than 65 billion euros a year in Europe.

Their discovery, published in the scientific journal EMBO Reports, paves the way for new possibilities for the treatment of habituation