Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute announced Tuesday that they've received a pair of grants worth a total of $3.8 million to fund a five-year study of brain mechanisms that suppress relapses of cocaine and alcohol addiction.
A team led by Nobuyoshi Suto, a newly appointed assistant professor of molecular and cellular neuroscience at The Scripps Research Institute, will be funded by a $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and a $1.7 million award from the agency's National Institute on Drug Abuse.
"The risk of chronic relapse, even after long periods of abstinence, is a major issue in treating addiction," Suto said. "If we can better understand these brain mechanisms that actively suppress — as opposed to promote — relapse, we may be able to develop a drug to enhance these mechanisms and maybe mimic those relapse-suppressing cues."
Previous studies have shown that external stimuli or cues signaling the availability of drugs or alcohol — like drug paraphernalia or the smell of beer — can activate certain types of neurons, neurochemicals and circuits in the brain, triggering a relapse.
In the opposite direction, cues that show drugs or alcohol are unavailable can suppress relapses in well-established animal models of drug addiction, according to preliminary studies conducted by Suto and his colleagues.
Now they want to learn which brain mechanisms affect the relapse- suppressing action of the cues. The research could not only uncover fundamental workings of the brain in behavioral inhibition, but could also point to new methods for helping people resist relapse, according to The Scripps Research Institute.
Suto's preliminary data with rat models suggest that so-called "omission cues" activate neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain associated with decision making.
The result is consistent with results from human studies that display activity in the medial prefrontal cortex when addicts are shown images of drug use and are told to suppress their cravings, the scientists said.
