Drug addiction, in whatever form, can have devastating consequences if not taken control of early on. Even then, the chances of addicts relapsing is quite high. However, thanks to a new therapeutic approach developed by researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, that may be about to change.

The new therapy seeks to prevent drug addicts from future drug use by reversing the chemical imbalances in the brain produced by habitual drug use. So far the treatments have only been tested on rats, but it was shown to successfully reduce the animals’ cravings, and any result is still a result.





When someone becomes dependent on drugs their brain chemistry alters in a way that makes it much more difficult to stop taking drugs even though they know the risks involved. Once this disorder has developed in one’s brain, the person pays much more attention to any signals related to the encouraging of drug use. This makes it much harder for them to say no.

One of the key chemicals in these changes is serotonin. This brain chemical is responsible for transmitting information between different neural regions. As of yet, there is no treatment to fix this chemical imbalance. What the UTMB researchers discovered was that the serotonin 2C receptors found in drug addicts don’t function quite as well as they should. During the study, they designed, manufactured, and tested a number of different small molecule therapeutics that were designed to replenish this weak signal.





Rats were trained to press on a lever at certain light cues in which to release cocaine. Once this behavior was learned by the rats, half of them received therapeutic treatment while the other half received just saline. Those that received the new therapeutic were found to press the cocaine-releasing lever far less than those receiving the saline treatment, even when reinforced using the same cocaine-linked light cues.

“We are the first to show that a serotonin 2C receptor therapeutic of this type can be successfully used to decrease drug-seeking behaviors,” said Kathryn Cunningham, the director of UTMB’s Center for Addiction Research. “Our findings are especially exciting because, in addition to someday helping people to recover from drug addiction, impaired functioning of the serotonin 2C receptor is also thought to contribute to other chronic health issues such as depression, impulsivity disorders, obesity, and schizophrenia.”

Moving forward the team will continue to improve the new therapeutic by carrying out further animal testing and eventually clinical trials.





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