| Research
Focus
Current and recent areas of research are as follows:
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1.
In an effort to understand how drugs produce addiction in the brain, we have been studying CART peptides in limbic areas. These peptides modulate limbic dopamine and play a role in the action of drugs, particularly psychostimulants like cocaine and amphetamines. An interdisciplinary approach is utilized, and topics of research include: the CART gene and its regulation, the effects of mutations in the gene in humans, how CART peptides help control the actions of drugs, and the possibility of using the CART system in the brain to develop new medications for drug addicts.
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| 2.
It is amazing that separating rat babies (pups) from their mothers for a few hours a day around their birth changes them for life! Early maternal separation of rat pups (a stressful experience) increases their likelihood to use drugs when they are adults. We have been studying the changes induced in the brain by the maternal separation procedure. The goal is to identify the molecular mechanisms of the increase in vulnerability, and produce a strategy to treat these animals (and humans) so they have less interest in drugs. |
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Medications development for cocaine and amphetamine abusers has evolved from a detailed study of the cocaine molecule and its targets in the brain. Several cocaine-like compounds are being considered as medications. These compounds lack many of the problems of cocaine and have properties desirable in medications. One of the potential medicines has been tested and can be used as a diagnostic imaging agent for Parkinson's disease. Another, RTI-336, has been considered for treating human cocaine addicts, and this potential medicine has passed preliminary trials in humans.
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| 4.
In recent years, because the development of ethics in research is important, the laboratory has developed an interest in what it calls collegial ethics. Collegial ethics proposes that we support our colleagues and develop and practice ways to do so. |
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