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Researchers may have found a way to suppress alcohol cravings at the push of a button, opening the door to new treatments for alcohol addiction.
Cut the cravings of alcohol
Scripps Research Institute (SRI) scientists have discovered a way to suppress alcohol cravings in alcohol-dependent rats, giving rise to hope for new drugs or gene therapies to fight against the abuse of alcohol.
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Using lasers, the researchers were able to temporarily disable some neuronal population related to alcohol-seeking behavior and were even able to reduce the physical symptoms of withdrawal.
"This discovery is exciting, which means that we have another piece of the puzzle to explain the neural mechanism that leads to alcohol consumption," says Olivier George, PhD, badociate professor at SRI and lead author of the report. ;study. The research was published this week in the journal Nature Communications.
Build the switch
George and other SRI researchers have been researching specific brain cells that stimulate alcohol cravings. In 2016, they identified a region of the brain, a neuronal "set" called corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) neurons, located in the central nucleus of the amygdala and that looked promising.
Using optical fibers implanted in the rat brain, the SRI team was able to turn off neurons in this part of the brain by pressing a switch.
Taking rats that had been made to develop an alcohol addiction over several months, the researchers removed the alcohol. The rats exhibited the expected symptoms of alcohol withdrawal, such as tremors and abnormal gait. When they reintroduced alcohol into the rats, the rats drank more than ever, and the researchers saw that the CRF neurons were active, causing the rats to drink more alcohol than they did. before.
When scientists activated optical fiber implants to disable CRF neurons, the behavior of rats changed dramatically. The intense impulse of the rats to drink excessively disappeared completely and they began to drink as little as before to become addicted. They even noticed that the physical withdrawal symptoms in the rats attenuated.
The effect could be reversed simply by deactivating the laser implants. As soon as the switch was closed, the rats started drinking excessively now that the CRF neurons were reactivated, providing even stronger evidence of the link between the targeted neurons and the alcohol cravings.
George hopes that new drugs and gene therapies will be able to target these neurons and provide effective treatment to people with alcohol-related disorders, which afflict more than 15 million adults in the United States.
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