Experimental treatment eliminates alcoholism in monkeys Science & Tech

One strain lacked the gene for a specific brain receptor known as dopamine D2, which responds to dopamine, the brain’s “feel good” chemical, to produce feelings of pleasure and reward. In the dopamine-receptor-deficient mice (but not the genetically normal strain), long-term alcohol drinking resulted in significant biochemical changes in areas of the brain well know to be involved in alcoholism and addiction. Another atypical antipsychotic drug, quetiapine, has been evaluated in a case study [160] and an open‐label study [161] in patients with alcohol dependence and comorbid psychiatric diagnosis. Both studies demonstrated that quetiapine was well tolerated and in the latter study, the medication not only reduced alcohol consumption and overall psychiatric symptom intensity but also significantly reduced craving. A double‐blind placebo‐controlled study by Kampman and colleagues evaluated the effect of quetiapine and found that the medication was well tolerated and clinically effective in reducing drinking [162].

Nonetheless, our observed adaptations in dopamine uptake may contribute to the apparent changes in dopamine release following long-term alcohol consumption. Faster dopamine uptake in the female subjects would have the net effect of decreasing the duration of neuromodulation produced by this transmitter. However, the increased uptake rate could be countered by the observed enhanced release, at least in female caudate. Nonetheless, altered dopamine kinetics or release could affect dopamine-dependent synaptic plasticity [42] that might subsequently affect new learning and behavioral flexibility. Indeed, in the multiple abstinence cohort, in which alcohol treated subjects had significantly less dopamine release, a separate study found that alcohol-consuming subjects had poorer cognitive flexibility relative to controls [43, 44]. Based on this clinical finding and the knowledge that olanzapine also has a high affinity for the D4 receptors, it was hypothesized whether the dopamine receptor D4 gene maybe involved in meditating its clinical effects.

Ways to Improve Your Dopamine Levels

In addition, D2 receptors can alter striatal dopamine and acetylcholine levels and inhibit cortical glutamatergic transmission directly or indirectly [60,61,62]. Furthermore, the balance of altered dopamine changes and subsequent effects on cellular excitability and fast synaptic transmission in the caudate alcohol and dopamine and putamen will likely dictate the relative behavioral control by the associative and sensorimotor circuits. In this context, the decreases in release in the putamen of the repeated abstinence male monkeys may limit behavioral plasticity to a greater extent in this region relative to the caudate.

Dopamine that has been released from a nerve terminal into the synaptic cleft can travel out of the synapse into the fluid surrounding the neurons and activate these extrasynaptic receptors. Through this mechanism, dopamine modulates the neurotransmitter release that is induced by cellular excitation (i.e., neurotransmitter secretion). For example, activation of some extrasynaptic D2-family receptors can inhibit the release of dopamine itself, thereby reducing dopaminergic signal transmission. The first time alcohol was reintroduced, the monkeys who had received the gene therapy decreased their drinking by about 50 percent compared to a control group of monkeys that didn’t get the therapy.

Dopamine Production and Distribution in the Brain

However, this harmonious relationship between dopamine and alcohol doesn’t last long. Unlike other drugs, which prevent the reuptake of dopamine, alcohol doesn’t do that. Marco Leyton, a professor and addiction researcher at McGill University’s Department of Psychiatry, said in a 2013 press release that participants more at risk for developing alcoholism had “an unusually large brain dopamine response” when they took a drink.

Although, association of TaqI A with AD has not been carried out in the north Indian population by anyone to date, a study from south India reported no association between TaqI A and alcoholism [24]. The present study tested association of three polymorphisms -141C Ins/Del, TaqI B and TaqI A, present at DRD2 gene locus with alcohol dependence in north Indian subjects. “The animals that received an inactive form of the gene continued drinking, whereas in the animals that were given GNDF, their dopamine was restored, https://ecosoberhouse.com/ and they went to very low levels of drinking – about one to two drinks a day, from between eight to 10 drinks a day,” Grant said. Four alcohol-addicted macaques underwent the procedure, which used magnetic resonance imaging to guide the injection to precisely the right site. A similar procedure is being trialled in adult patients with Parkinson’s disease and in children with a rare genetic disorder called aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase deficiency, which affects the nervous system and causes movement problems.