Nature Neuroscience: studio indentifica meccanismi molecolari correlati al binge drinking
NIH-FUNDED SCINTISTS INDENTIFY BRAIN SITE FOR STRESS ROLE IN BINGE ALCOHOL DRINKING
New research supported by the National Institutes of Health shows how elements of the brain’s stress and reward pathways can interact to suppress binge alcohol drinking. The finding, now online in the journal Nature Neuroscience, suggests potential strategies for treating and preventing alcohol use problems.
“This study is an important contribution to our knowledge of the neurobiology of alcohol use disorders and could open new avenues for medication development,” said George F. Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the primary sponsor of the research. NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases also provided support for the study.
Binge alcohol drinking contributes to myriad acute and chronic public health problems, and accounts for an estimated three-quarters of the total economic cost of alcohol misuse. Accumulating evidence indicates that binge drinking by adolescents and college students contributes to alcohol dependence and anxiety disorders.
Previous studies have shown that brain signaling by a protein known as corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) increases anxiety. CRF activity also increases during binge alcohol drinking. In contrast, a brain protein called neuropeptide Y (NPY) is known to reduce binge drinking and anxiety. However, how and where these two opposing systems interact in the brain is unknown.
The current study reports that the anti-drinking effect of NPY is produced by enhancing the inhibition of CRF neurons in a brain region – the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, or BNST -- that is involved in reward and anxiety behaviors. Researchers led by Thomas L. Kash, Ph.D., at the University of North Carolina’s Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Chapel Hill, used multi-faceted approaches in animal models of binge and chronic drinking to define NPY’s role in the BNST.
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copia integrale del testo si può trovare al seguente link:
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-funded-scientists-identify-brain-site-stress-role-binge-alcohol
(Articolo pubblicato dal CUFRAD sul sito www.alcolnews.it)