An epilepsy drug used in Europe removes key signs of addiction to cocaine in baboons and rats, according to a study in Synapse this week . If confirmed in human studies, the finding may lead to a new way to help cocaine addicts kick the habit.
The drug, called gamma vinyl-GABA (GVG), seems to erase a chemical characteristic of cocaine and other addictive drugs: a surge of dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain's reward centers. GVG does not act on dopamine directly, but increases levels of a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) that acts as a brake on dopamine release; that GABA may boost curb excessive neuronal activity leading to seizures. In the early 190s neuropharmacologist Stephen Dewey of Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, and colleagues began to test whether GVG also removes dopamine-induced increase in cocaine.
In the current study, the team gave Dewey cocaine 20 baboons, some of whom had previously received injections of GVG and followed dopamine levels in the brain baboons using a technique imaging called positron emission tomography. While cocaine produces a large increase in dopamine in baboons not given GVG, the researchers did not see this increase in animals treated with GVG, suggesting that the drug "blocks the neurochemical action of cocaine," says . -member of Charles Ashby team, neuropharmacologist at St. Johns University in Jamaica, New York
the researchers then investigated whether GVG could also block a behavior related to drug addiction in rats: their tendency to return to a place they had already received an addictive drug. This behavior reflects the ability of rats to link environmental signals with drug taking, an association that often triggers drug cravings in people. researchers discovered that GVG stopped the behavior, indicating that it could weaken drug cravings.
"We hope that GVG will dramatically reduce the tendency of an addict back to cocaine," said Ashby . Of course, if this hope is realized will depend on the results of clinical trials are expected to begin later this year. "This is obviously something that should be followed," said Frank Vocci neuropharmacologist of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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