A mixture of two drugs cured rats of cocaine addiction.
The use of drugs in most cases leads to the formation of mental, and in some cases, physical dependence. In particular, opioids and many other "hard drugs" cause both forms of addiction, while cocaine, amphetamines and hallucinogens form only mental addiction. Narcologists have learned how to effectively deal with the physical component of drug addiction, but have difficulty neutralizing the mental discomfort of quitting drugs.
A group of drug therapists led by George Koob of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla (USA) tried to cure rats suffering from cocaine addiction by experimenting with various anti-drug drugs.
Cub and colleagues have observed that many of the negative syndromes associated with cocaine withdrawal are due to increased activity of the stress hormone dynorphin and its associated receptors in the brains of drug addicts. As the scientists explain, taking cocaine not only causes an increase in activity in the brain's pleasure center, but also enhances the work of cells that produce dynorphin.
This phenomenon is one of the reasons for the difficulty of quitting cocaine - the high level of dynorphin in the addict's brain creates a constant feeling of stress and discomfort, which is suppressed by an additional dose of the drug.
“Our previous studies have shown unequivocally that continued access to cocaine leads to suppression of the positive reward system in the pleasure center, and to the activation and subsequent intensification of stress mechanisms,” explained one of the members of the Sunmee Wee group of the Scripps Research Institute.
Narcologists have tried to neutralize both effects - suppression of the reward system and high activity of the stress center - with an unusual combination of drugs that act on different parts of the brain.
The first of these, buprenorphine, blocks the work of the kappa-opioid receptors associated with the stress center in the brain. This drug is not used in medical practice because of the risk of causing addiction similar to heroin. Cub and his colleagues were able to neutralize this effect with a precisely metered dose of another drug, naltrexone. This agent blocks the work of mu-opioid receptors and is widely used in the treatment of heroin addiction in medical practice.
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Scientists tested a mixture of two drugs on rats suffering from drug addiction. A few days after the start of therapy, the animals got rid of cocaine dependence and did not become addicted to buprenorphine, which confirmed the effectiveness of the authors' methodology.
However, it is not yet clear how such treatment might affect a person's mental and physical health. On the other hand, there are no other methods of combating cocaine addiction yet, so this unusual technique may become the subject of clinical trials.