Spring Break
Researcher tests drug to quell addiction
VIVIAN GIANG
Issue date: 10/19/09 Section: News
Researchers in the University's College of Veterinary Medicine are using a drug commonly associated with treatment for schizophrenia to help drug addicts during the withdrawal process.
The researchers tested D-Serine, an amino acid, for its effectiveness in learning capabilities for cocaine addicts.
When John Wagner, professor of physiology and pharmacology, initiated the research project, his interest was to find a class of drugs that might facilitate learning and memory in a target in the brain, known as the NMDA (N-methyl-d-aspartate) receptor.
This particular nerve cell receptor is critically important in memory and learning capabilities.
"Our interest in using it and applying [D-Serine] to the field of drug addiction was to consider the field of drug addiction treatment - cocaine and amphetamines in particular," Wagner said.
"One of the only available therapies currently for treating those addictions is behavioral types of therapies, such as counseling."
"When a person is engaged in treatment sessions, if you can enhance the effectiveness of the behavioral therapy, then you would presumably enhance the effectiveness of the treatment and the cravings of the relapse in the state of addiction," he said.
D-Serine is a natural substance found in the brain and is potentially one of the classes of drugs that are known as cognitive enhancers. As opposed to a synthetic substance, D-Serine would not be something new being introduced into the nervous system.
"D-Serine itself is not an addictive drug - we're not replacing cocaine with another stimulate drug - and it is not an anti-craving medication" Wagner said. "It is a drug that would be given along with behavioral therapy to enhance the effectiveness of counseling or other cognitive behavioral types of therapy."
At the time of the research, Lakshmi Kelamangalath was a graduate student at the University and worked alongside Wagner and then-postdoctoral student Claire Seymour.
The researchers tested D-Serine, an amino acid, for its effectiveness in learning capabilities for cocaine addicts.
When John Wagner, professor of physiology and pharmacology, initiated the research project, his interest was to find a class of drugs that might facilitate learning and memory in a target in the brain, known as the NMDA (N-methyl-d-aspartate) receptor.
This particular nerve cell receptor is critically important in memory and learning capabilities.
"Our interest in using it and applying [D-Serine] to the field of drug addiction was to consider the field of drug addiction treatment - cocaine and amphetamines in particular," Wagner said.
"One of the only available therapies currently for treating those addictions is behavioral types of therapies, such as counseling."
"When a person is engaged in treatment sessions, if you can enhance the effectiveness of the behavioral therapy, then you would presumably enhance the effectiveness of the treatment and the cravings of the relapse in the state of addiction," he said.
D-Serine is a natural substance found in the brain and is potentially one of the classes of drugs that are known as cognitive enhancers. As opposed to a synthetic substance, D-Serine would not be something new being introduced into the nervous system.
"D-Serine itself is not an addictive drug - we're not replacing cocaine with another stimulate drug - and it is not an anti-craving medication" Wagner said. "It is a drug that would be given along with behavioral therapy to enhance the effectiveness of counseling or other cognitive behavioral types of therapy."
At the time of the research, Lakshmi Kelamangalath was a graduate student at the University and worked alongside Wagner and then-postdoctoral student Claire Seymour.
