A Gene Required For Addictive Behavior

Posted on July 21, 2018

Maged1 is a member of a family of genes that first gained attention because they are active in tumors. However, Maged1 also functions in the brain and has been shown to play a role in neural fating and response to antidepressants. Moreover, activation of the Maged1 gene is altered by chronic cocaine treatment. Hence, researchers set out to investigate whether Maged1 plays a role in cocaine addiction.

Every animal, including humans, feels pleasure when engaging in certain behaviors, such as eating, drinking or procreating. Rewarding stimuli lead to the release of dopamine from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain to other brain regions that are connected to the VTA, mainly in the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc), the hub of the reward system. Cocaine directly affects the reward system by blocking the removal of dopamine from the synapses, leading to a dopamine surge that over-activates the circuitry. This excess of dopamine induces long-lasting changes in the brain, eventually leading to addiction.

Some of the cocaine-induced changes occur in the prefrontal cortex. In healthy animals, the prefrontal cortex controls behaviors such as inhibitory control and emotion regulation. Alterations in these structures after cocaine abuse are thought to mediate many of the symptoms that characterize addiction such as drug-seeking, loss of control and poor decision making.

Only very few mutations are known to induce a complete lack of behavioral response to cocaine. Other members of this small group are established components of the reward system. Maged1 thus serves as a promising new entry point into the analysis of the mechanisms underlying drug addiction.


Category(s):Addictions, Drug Addiction

Source material from Science Daily