The key to reducing addiction is to reduce tolerance
As they say, when it comes to prevention of alcoholism – it’s all in the brain.
A protein in the brain that binds to alcohol could be the key to curing alcoholism, according to a report published in eNeuro, a journal of the Society for Neuroscience. The World Health Organisation estimates that one in 20 Indian men suffer from alcoholism.
The protein, called MUNC 13-1, plays a pivotal role in the development of tolerance to alcoholism according to University of Houston College of Pharmacy medicinal chemist Joydip Das.
“Addiction to alcohol remains one of the most significant mental health problems throughout the world. A major challenge is to understand how ethanol, or alcohol, changes behavior and the brain during the descent into addiction,” Das said. Developing tolerance is a critical step in the progression of alcoholism.
“If a person becomes tolerant of one drink, he will have another and maybe another. If we could stop alcohol from binding into MUNC 13-1 it will help problem drinkers in reducing tolerance.”
“If a person becomes tolerant of one drink, he will have another and maybe another. If we could stop alcohol from binding into MUNC 13-1 it will help problem drinkers in reducing tolerance. If we can reduce tolerance we can reduce addiction,” said Das whose study focuses on binge alcohol exposure.
The process of MUNC 13-1 binding to alcohol takes place in a brain synapse, where one nerve cell, or neuron, passes a signal to another. Specifically, the binding takes place in the presynaptic space, a much understudied portion of the synapse mechanism.
During binge alcohol exposure, alcohol creates widespread and long-lasting changes in neural activity, altering both presynaptic and postsynaptic activity.
Previous research that has been done using the Drosophila (fruit fly)genetic model system showed that the reduction in activating protein, called Dunc13, produces a behavioral and physiological resistance to sedative effects of ethanol. Dunc13 is the equivalent to MUNC 13-1 and is an important target for developing drugs. “We need to develop a pill that would inhibit alcohol binding to MUNC 13 and reduce its activity. Based on our results so far, this would likely reduce the formation of tolerance, making it harder to become addicted to alcohol,” said Das. ‘If we can reduce tolerance, we can reduce addiction,’ added Mr Das.
