2 days ago
Scientists hooking flies on cocaine to study addiction: Reports
(NewsNation) — Scientists in recent days have been having flies taste cocaine to build a model to study the disorder and work towards better therapies, a report said.
The researchers used Drosophila flies — a vital model organism — because they share a lot more in common with humans, including sharing around 75% of the genes that cause disease in the human population.
'We're not at the stage of developing therapies for cocaine addiction just yet, but the flies' hatred for the highly addictive substance before their bitterness perception was knocked out has already provided some fascinating insights,' said Dr. Adrian Rothenfluh.
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The study proved that cocaine is innately aversive to flies and that this avoidance depends on bitter sensing. Gustatory sensory neurons expressing the bitter receptor are activated upon exposure to cocaine.
Cocaine use disorder is a highly heritable condition for which there are no effective treatments. There are currently no FDA-approved pharmacotherapies that can treat it.
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