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06-02-2005, 08:57 PM
22 January 2005
From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
Bob Holmes (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18524834.200)
THE secret of an African herb that helps drug addicts and alcoholics kick the habit has been discovered. The finding could lead to safer and more effective medications for treating addiction.
Since the 1960s, many addicts have reported that even a single dose of ibogaine, a hallucinogenic alkaloid extracted from the root of an African shrub, helps them kick their habit by reducing their cravings for drugs. And there is hard evidence to back these claims, as well. However, troubling side effects - including heart problems and several deaths - have kept ibogaine from being widely accepted as a medical treatment. Instead, a few researchers have begun searching for ways to deliver ibogaine's benefits without its risks (New Scientist, 26 April 2003, p 34).
A few previous studies have suggested that becoming addicted to a substance lowers the production of a nerve growth factor called glial cell-line derived neurotrophic factor, or GDNF. So Dorit Ron's team at the University of California, San Francisco, decided to test whether ibogaine affects GDNF levels in the brain.
In rats injected with ibogaine, the researchers found that production of GDNF increased in a region of the brain called the ventral tegmental area. What's more, injecting either ibogaine or GDNF itself directly into this brain area decreased alcohol cravings in addicted rats, whereas injecting anti-GDNF antibodies eliminated any beneficial effect of ibogaine. The results appear in The Journal of Neuroscience.
[continued (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18524834.200)]
From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
Bob Holmes (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18524834.200)
THE secret of an African herb that helps drug addicts and alcoholics kick the habit has been discovered. The finding could lead to safer and more effective medications for treating addiction.
Since the 1960s, many addicts have reported that even a single dose of ibogaine, a hallucinogenic alkaloid extracted from the root of an African shrub, helps them kick their habit by reducing their cravings for drugs. And there is hard evidence to back these claims, as well. However, troubling side effects - including heart problems and several deaths - have kept ibogaine from being widely accepted as a medical treatment. Instead, a few researchers have begun searching for ways to deliver ibogaine's benefits without its risks (New Scientist, 26 April 2003, p 34).
A few previous studies have suggested that becoming addicted to a substance lowers the production of a nerve growth factor called glial cell-line derived neurotrophic factor, or GDNF. So Dorit Ron's team at the University of California, San Francisco, decided to test whether ibogaine affects GDNF levels in the brain.
In rats injected with ibogaine, the researchers found that production of GDNF increased in a region of the brain called the ventral tegmental area. What's more, injecting either ibogaine or GDNF itself directly into this brain area decreased alcohol cravings in addicted rats, whereas injecting anti-GDNF antibodies eliminated any beneficial effect of ibogaine. The results appear in The Journal of Neuroscience.
[continued (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18524834.200)]