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July 31, 2008Drug has potential to prevent alcoholics from relapsing |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: An experimental drug that blocks the euphoric feelings associated with drinking may prevent alcoholics from relapsing. The finding, the result of a mouse study at Oregon Health & Science University, could lead to human clinical trials within the next year. "We showed we could block behavior in mice that resembles this increased euphoria even after the animals had been given a lot of alcohol," said Tamara Phillips, Ph.D., professor and vice chair of the behavioral neuroscience department at OHSU and a research scientist at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. This change in the brain does not subside after people quit drinking. So when they begin consuming alcohol again, "they get a bigger jolt," Phillips said. Phillips and her team determined that a brain receptor called CRF1 appears to be involved in this heightened pleasure sensation. They compared the responses of normal mice and mice bred without the CRF1 receptor to chronic doses of alcohol. Mice without the CRF1 receptor did not experience the euphoric jolt the normal mice demonstrated. Before testing for the euphoric response, the researchers gave the mice an experimental drug called CP 154,526 -- developed by Pfizer -- which prevents CRF from reaching the brain receptor. Phillips' study recently was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. "I think if you block this receptor, you might be able to decrease drinking in response to PTSD," Phillips said. It serves patients from every corner of the state, and is a conduit for learning for more than 3,400 students and trainees.
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