We are constantly hearing about the War on Drugs and how drugs are affecting Americans' lives in one way or another. Cocaine is the second most abused drug throughout the country, with more than 900,000 Americans addicted. There currently is no treatment for cocaine overdose or the addictive behavior behind the use. Researchers at the University of Chicago are trying to create a skin-patch that will act similar to nicotine patches for smokers. The enzyme that breaks down cocaine is called butyrylcholinesterase. The researchers inserted large quantities of this enzyme into skin epidermal stem cells using the CRISPR/Cas9 technique. They tested the patches on addicted mouse models for 10 weeks. The patches proved effective by week 2 and showed that the enzyme broke down much of cocaine before it could be sent to the brain.
While this could be a great tool for people trying to quit cocaine use, it needs to be studied more to be used as a treatment for people not looking for help. Often times, addicts are not just using cocaine and will overdose on a cocktail of drugs. In that case, this patch may no longer be effective. Another problem that researchers need to account for is that addicts will either continue to up the dosage until the enzyme no longer can break all of it or they will turn to another drug for their high. Although there is a lot left to do for this research, it looks promising that CRISPR-edited skin patches could help reduce the cocaine problem.
Article Link:
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/gene-edited-skin-patch-prevents-cocaine-overdose-in-mice-64810
Research Paper:
Li, Y., Kong, Q., Yue, J., Gou, X., Xu, M., & Wu, X. (2018). Genome-edited skin epidermal stem cells protect mice from cocaine-seeking behaviour and cocaine overdose. Nature Biomedical Engineering. doi:10.1038/s41551-018-0293-z
Interesting read! I'm curious to know what the protocol would be to administering this treatment to patients not looking for help as it would violate their autonomy. Also, I am curious about the possible side effects of the addict ingesting more cocaine to surpass the efficacy of the enzyme breaking down the cocaine and if this will end up being even more detrimental to the patient's health than addiction. I also just found an interesting article that said that using dextroamphetamine, a component in Adderall, could also turn out to be an effective way to curb cocaine addiction much like treating opioid addiction with methadone.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thefix.com/adderall-ingredient-could-be-useful-treating-cocaine-addiction