Heroin addiction can be successfully treated

Heroin addiction could be stopped by new medication

08/16/2012

According to the latest study results, morphine or heroin addiction could be stopped in the future. The newly developed preparation „plus-naloxone“ should lead to a reduction in the release of dopamine in the reward center of the brain. However, the drug is not yet clinically tested as the researchers in the US journal „Journal of Neuroscience "report.

A blockade in the brain prevents the craving for opiates, explains Mark Hutchinson of the Australian School of Medical Sciences in Adelaide. The effect of opiates such as heroin or morphine via so-called immune receptors (TLR4) in the brain, which increase dependence.

Against heroin addiction dopamine secretions in the brain should be slowed down
„Taken together, the data suggest that the mode of action of opiates on classical opiate receptors, along with their newly discovered mode of action on TLR4, affects the mesolimbic dopamine system, augmenting an opiate-induced increase in extracellular dopamine levels“, write the scientists. Drug „plus-naloxone“ should reduce the thrusts of the messenger substance dopamine in the reward center brain and thus reach a level, „That's the same as eating, sex, or hugging, "says Hutchinson, who have long suspected that TLR4 receptors play a key role, „but now we have the proof, "says Linda Watkins of the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Colorado.

The scientists see the use of „plus-naloxone“ mainly in the relief of severe pain, whereby dependence is prevented. In addition, it could be used by drug addicts. (Ag)

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Picture: Gerd Altmann