Using lasers to heal drug addiction

Anyone who has ever had a loved one fall into a cocaine addiction would know how gut-wrenching it is to feel powerless against an enemy whose home is inside the user’s head.

 

From the insatiable desire for the drug, to the debilitating effects of withdrawal, you are witness to the horror of a mind destroying itself.

 

If only you could snap your fingers to make the illness go away. Or turn a light on in the dark recesses of the drug-addled brain.

 

Previous studies have shown that a compulsive cocaine addiction dulls activity in the prefrontal cortex of the human brain, an area believed to be the center of impulse control and decision-making.

 

Scientists working with lab rats —whose brains are wired almost identically to those of humans— have found a way to remove a rat’s cocaine habit by shining a laser light in the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex. 

 

Ingenious genetic engineering involved the injection of light-sensitive proteins called rhodopsins into the rats’ prefrontal cortex neurons, turning them into switches that can be triggered on and off by a laser light. 

 

On the downside, however, if the switch turns addicts off on cocaine, it can also turn non-addicts on.

 

The research, detailed in the journal Nature, shows promise of a new therapy for people crippled by drug addiction.

 

Antonello Bonci, scientific director of the intramural research program at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), says clinical trials are planned at the NIH to see if this approach might work.

 

However, instead of lasers, human subjects will receive transcranial magnetic stimulation, a non-invasive therapy applied outside the scalp used as a treatment for depression.

 

Clinical trials will involve a few sessions to test if activity can be restored to the prefrontal cortex of people addicted to coke.

 

Heavy usage of the drug is believed to hasten the rate of the brain’s natural aging, while even social usage can raise the risk of heart problems.

 

Should those trials succeed, users and their families can hope for a brighter future free of drugs. — TJD, GMA News