BLOCKING a brain chemical linked with sleep might help former cocaine-users avoid a relapse.
The idea comes from an experiment on rats that had been addicted to cocaine then weaned off it. When the rats were given infusions of the brain chemical hypocretin-1, and then exposed to the stress of a short electric shock, they became more likely than other animals to go off in search of a fix of cocaine. But if the rats had earlier been give a drug to block the effects of hypocretin-1, the stress did not encourage them to relapse (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0507480102).
Hypocretin-1 is produced naturally in the brain and may be linked to the sleep-wake cycle. Luis de Lecea at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, who led the study, says that his experiments may indicate that hypocretin-l agitates stressed rats to the point where they dash off in pursuit of cocaine. 鈥淚t often happens in addicts,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey can be off cocaine for a long time, but when stressed they start taking it again.鈥�
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De Lecea speculates that withdrawing from cocaine may trigger an imbalance in hypocretin-1 in the brain that makes former users more likely to relapse. He is therefore proposing to give such people a hypocretin-1 blocker in the hope of reducing the chances of this happening.
