COC

Potential Drug Target For Treating Cocaine Abuse Found

A substance similar to a drug used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease blocks the stimulating effects of cocaine and could potentially be used to develop drug therapy for cocaine abuse, new research shows. In an article published in the February 23, 2005, issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, Jonathan Katz and his colleagues at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) report the re...

Environmental chemical cocktail may sabotage sperm

New research has shown that combinations of chemicals found in everyday products and food have subtle but potentially damaging effects on sperm fertility. Professor Lynn Fraser told the 21st annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology today (Wednesday), that her previous research had shown that certain chemicals known to mimic the female sex hormone, oes...

Comparison of Cocaine, Methamphetamine ‘Highs?Finds Differences

Don't call them the Dirt Doctors, or Sultans of Soil, they're just clever Lab guys. A team from Los Alamos National Laboratory has a paper in this week's Science Magazine with a new way to count bugs in dirt. Bacteria, that is, in the highly complex world beneath our feet. "Computational Improvements Reveal Great Bacterial Diversity and High Metal Toxicity in Soil," by Jason Gans, Murray W...

New clue to cocaine addicts' quirky behavior

Researchers working with rats have zeroed in on the brain circuitry mechanism whose disruption contributes to the impulsive behavior seen in users of cocaine as well as other psychostimulant drugs. The same circuitry has been implicated in such disorders as schizophrenia, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, wrote the researchers. Yukiori Goto and Anthony A. Grace of the Univers...

Disrupting Cocaine-memories To Battle Addiction

Novel use of genetic testing methods helped public health officials control and limit the further spread of four outbreaks of foodborne hepatitis A virus in 2003 related to the consumption of green onions, according to a detailed analysis published in the October 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. The authors of the study, Joseph J. Amon, PhD, MSPH, and c...

Opiate cocktail may spare cells from morphine's dark side

Although morphine is well known as a highly effective analgesic, its clinical utility is severely limited by the development of drug tolerance, the requirement for increasing doses to maintain analgesic effect, and the development of physical dependence. In the June 7 issue of Current Biology, researchers report a new study showing that the administration of a drug cocktail containing morphine al...

Sooner is better with cochlear implants, Stanford scientist shows

Cochlear implants allow the deaf to hear. Their brains learn to understand the artificial electrical stimulation that the implants provide to the cochlea as sound. A Stanford neurobiologist teamed with child-development specialists at the University of Maryland to see if children with cochlear implants were able to meld their newly acquired hearing capability with their ability to read lip...

Portable cocaine sensor developed at UC Santa Barbara

A real-time sensor for detecting cocaine –?made with inexpensive, off-the-shelf electronics –?has been developed by a team of researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Two local high school students and a Nobel laureate participated in the discovery. The potential applications of the sensor are far-reaching and include bioterrorism detection and important medical uses. Th...

High resolution 'snapshots' detail dynamics of a cocaine antibody

Cocaine-binding antibodies have shown some promise in their ability to neutralize cocaine toxicity, but their binding ability is severely impaired by high concentrations of the drug. A catalytic monoclonal antibody such as 7A1, on the other hand, has the ability to regenerate after each new dose of the drug, making it far more effective than others in metabolizing cocaine. The study, which...

Genetically altered mice no longer like cocaine

Researchers found that they could eliminate the rewarding effect of cocaine on mice by genetically manipulating a key target of the drug in the animal's brain. While the researchers aren't suggesting that these genetic modifications be made in humans, the work brings to light the key protein that controls cocaine's effects in the body, which may help scientists develop medications that ach...

With cochlear implants, earlier use leads to better speech

"Bye-bye, bye-bye," said one 3 and a half-year old child, born deaf but with a cochlear implant that partially restored hearing nine months earlier. That's the most complex speech the child uttered during a testing session that involved play with a toy train set. In contrast, a child of the same age who had a cochlear implant 31 months earlier made more sophisticated statements: "OK, now...

New study reveals components of cocoa may enhance the appearance of the skin

Cocoa butter has long been used topically in many skin creams and cosmetics because it is thought to be good for the skin. Now, new research just published in the Journal of Nutrition reveals the potential benefits of consuming flavanol-rich cocoa and how it might actually benefit skin from the inside out. Researchers found that certain components in cocoa may actually help improve the app...

High-tech research shows cocaine changes proteins and brain function

In the first large-scale analysis of proteins in the brains of individuals addicted to cocaine, researchers have uncovered novel proteins and mechanisms that may one day lead to new treatment options to fight addiction. The results, reported in the current issue of Molecular Psychiatry, released on-line today, show differences in the amounts of 50 proteins and point to profound changes in...

Researchers find docking sites for glucocorticoid receptor and Hsp90

University of Oregon researchers have identified protein interactions that regulate the response of cells to steroid hormones. The discovery, they say, could lead to new ways to boost the effectiveness and reduce undesired side effects of steroid-hormone treatments and cancer drugs. The study, published online this week ahead of regular publication in the Proceedings of the National Acad...

Altered perception of reward in human cocaine addiction

People addicted to cocaine have an impaired ability to perceive rewards and exercise control due to disruptions in the brain's reward and control circuits, according to a series of brain-mapping studies and neuropsychological tests conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. "Our findings provide the first evidence that the brain's threshold for responding...

Scientists design simple dipstick test for cocaine, other drugs

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a simple "dipstick" test for detecting cocaine and other drugs in saliva, urine or blood serum. The test is based upon DNA-gold nanoparticle technology, and can be packaged in user-friendly kits similar to those used for home pregnancy tests. "Building upon our earlier work with lead (Pb) sensors, we constructed c...

Cocaine high caused by interference in neuronal receiving stations

Researchers have found evidence for a fundamental molecular mechanism underlying the hyperactive high of cocaine. In studies with rats, they have traced the effect to interactions between two types of receiving stations in neurons for nerve signals from their neighbors. The researchers' studies in rats found that when the animals received cocaine, a component of a receptor for the neurotransmitte...

Bacteria research offers hope for new vaccine against meningococci

Each year 170,000 people around the world die of this type of meningitis, according to the World Health Organization, WHO. Bacterial meningitis, as the disease is called, can even spark epidemics: in Africa 250,000 people were affected in a matter of weeks in the late 1990s. Without treatment, mortality among those who contract the disease is 85-90 percent, with treatment some 10-15 percent. P...

Flavanols in cocoa may offer benefits to the brain

A special cocoa made to retain naturally occurring compounds called flavanols may have the potential to help maintain healthy brain function and chart the course for future research that could lead to new solutions for preventing cognitive decline and dementia, according to a panel of scientists who presented new data at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Scienc...

Strawberry daiquiris -- the extra-healthy cocktail?

Strawberries are good for you, but serving them in daiquiri form may make them even healthier, scientists show. While exploring ways to help keep strawberries fresh during storage, researchers from Thailand and the US discovered that treating the berries with alcohol led to an increase in antioxidant capacity and free radical scavenging activity within the fruit. While such a boost helped...

Prenatal cocaine's lasting cellular effects

Although the "crack baby" hysteria of the 1980s was greatly exaggerated, cocaine use during pregnancy can cause subtle but disabling cognitive impairments -- attention deficits, learning disabilities and emotional problems. A recent study by investigators at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development may help explain the long-term behavioral and neurological problems...

New recommendations against a major opportunistic infection -- cryptococcosis

CRNS and the Institut Pasteur conducted research in France on patients diagnosed with cryptococcosis which ranks second among fatal opportunistic infections in patients infected by HIV and who are profoundly immunosuppressed. A multicentric prospective study, published on February 5 2007 in PLoS Medicine, uncovers parameters associated with more severe infections, such as the patient’s sex and t...

Cocoa 'vitamin' health benefits could outshine penicillin

The health benefits of epicatechin, a compound found in cocoa, are so striking that it may rival penicillin and anaesthesia in terms of importance to public health, reports Marina Murphy in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told C&I that epicatechin is so important that it should be considered a vitamin....

Staphylococcus aureus hides out in cells

A team of 12 researchers from University Ho...