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Thursday, March 20, 2008

Addiction: Damping down alcohol dependence
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 9, 251 (April 2008)

Stress is a well-known trigger of alcoholism relapse in susceptible individuals, and it has been suggested that neural systems that mediate behavioural stress responses could be targets for pharmacotherapy of alcoholism. Now, Heilig and colleagues demonstrate that antagonism of neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1R; also known as TACR1) — a receptor that is highly expressed in brain areas involved in stress responses and brain reward — effectively reduces alcohol cravings.

Previous studies have shown that genetic deletion or pharmacological blockade of NK1R dampens behavioural responses to psychological stressors. So, the authors proposed that modulation of NK1R signalling may also influence stress- and reward-related processes that are important for excessive alcohol use and relapse.
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