The drug works on the hunger hormone to reduce alcohol cravings
A drug originally developed for diabetes and obesity has shown promise in dealing with alcoholism.
The drug focuses on ghrelin, a peptide with 28 amino acids that stimulates appetite and food intake. Known as “the hunger hormone,” ghrelin levels and feelings of hunger increase in tandem. In those with alcohol use disorder, higher concentrations of ghrelin is associated with higher alcohol craving and consumption.
Researchers from University of Rhode Island believe that an oral medication that blocks ghrelin may help stave off cravings for alcohol. Initial findings have shown positive results in lab rats and in 12 patients who volunteered for a study.
“Addictions share similar pathways in the brain — food addiction, alcohol addiction, drug addiction.”
The result of this study was published last month in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
“Addictions share similar pathways in the brain — food addiction, alcohol addiction, drug addiction. If this drug can block the ghrelin receptor, even if you have high ghrelin level, your ghrelin receptors become numb, and do not respond to the hunger signal,” said Fatemeh Akhlaghi, the Ernest Mario Distinguished Chair in Pharmaceutics and co-principal investigator on the study.
He added: “In 12 patients, there was a statistically significant reduction in alcohol craving and food craving. The main outcome was that the drug was safe and well-tolerated, did not affect alcohol pharmacokinetics, and that there was a significant dampening of the effect of ghrelin.”
The research has been funded by a $1.65 million grant from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant formalizes a partnership among Akhlaghi, Pfizer and Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, chief of the Section on Clinical Psycho-neuroendocrinology and Neuro-psychopharmacology, an NIH laboratory funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
