UC Irvine pharmacological researchers have discovered that blocking a hormone related to hunger regulation can limit cocaine cravings.
Their findings could herald a new approach to overcoming addiction.
Led by Shinjae Chung and Olivier Civelli, the study identified how the melanin-concentrating hormone works with dopamine in the brain's "pleasure center" to create an addictive response to cocaine use. The researchers further found that blocking MCH in these brain cells limited cocaine cravings.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter essential to the normal functioning of the central nervous system. It also is associated with feelings of pleasure and is released in the brain during eating, sex and drug use. Heightened levels of the neurotransmitter have been detected in the nucleus accumbens of drug addicts.
The study is the first to detail the interaction of MCH and dopamine in cocaine addiction and show that it occurs in the nucleus accumbens, a portion of the forebrain believed to play an important role in addiction and feelings of pleasure and fear. Study results appear in this week's early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
"This discovery indicates that MCH is a key regulator of dopamine in a brain area associated with both pleasure and addiction," says Civelli, the Eric L. and Lila D. Nelson Professor of Neuropharmacology. "We believe that efforts to target MCH may lead to new treatments to break addiction to cocaine and, possibly, other drugs, like amphetamines and nicotine."