Here is Maged1, the gene that could save humans from addictions!

Belgian researchers have highlighted the major role of the gene known as Maged1 in the addiction relating to certain drugs. This research could perhaps pave the way for new treatments!

Drugs have long been the subject of prevention and perpetual search for treatment. This does not prevent that in Europe alone, no less than 15.5 million people are addicted to a drug. The fact is that to improve the situation, the ideal remains to understand the mechanisms by which these products impact the human brain.

One of the most egregious examples is the increase of dopamine, a chemical substance that acts as a neurotransmitter , that is to say a molecule transmitting information between the neurons. Science is the source of many tests on humans and animals, and this effect has been found every time. This released dopamine comes from a region of the brain called the ventral striatum (or nucleus accumbens), linked to the reward process, and it must be known that excess dopamine causes long-term neurological changes.

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Published in the journal EMBO reports on July 12, 2018, a study was conducted by a team from the Faculty of Medicine of the Free University of Brussels (Belgium), headed by Professor Alban de Kerchove of Exaerde. The researchers used transgenic mice to demonstrate in vivo that inactivation of the Maged1 gene allowed the animals to become insensitive to the effects of cocaine. Thus, the release of dopamine in rodents has been greatly diminished, and the researchers noted an absence of addictive behavior – or other affiliated reaction.

Scientists then tried to understand where in the brain the Maged1 gene had the greater influence. After several localized inactivations, it was established that the Maged1 gene controlled the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. It is a set of neurons of the prefrontal cortex also playing an important role in the reward system and addiction (addiction, dependence). Thus, the Maged1 gene does not act directly on dopamine-releasing neurons but on an intermediate.

This research could one day lead to the emergence of new, more targeted and therefore potentially more effective treatments for drug dependence. drugs, although other studies should be conducted at the molecular level.

Sources: Slate – The Vif

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