Aug 15 - Scientists can now block heroin, morphine addiction

major news if you have ever known any one addicted

Scientists can now block heroin, morphine addiction - Daily News

In a major breakthrough, an international team of scientists has proven that addiction to morphine and heroin can be blocked, while at the same time increasing pain relief.

The team from the University of Adelaide and University of Colorado has discovered the key mechanism in the body’s immune system that amplifies addiction to opioid drugs.

Laboratory studies have shown that the drug (+)-naloxone will selectively block the immune-addiction response.

The results – which could eventually lead to new co-formulated drugs that[..]ist patients with severe pain, as well as helping heroin users to kick the habit – will be published tomorrow in the Journal of Neuroscience.

“Our studies have shown conclusively that we can block addiction via the immune system of the brain, without targeting the brain’s wiring,” says the lead author of the study, Dr Mark Hutchinson, ARC Research Fellow in the University of Adelaide’s School of Medical Sciences.

“Both the central nervous system and the immune system play important roles in creating addiction, but our studies have shown we only need to block the immune response in the brain to prevent cravings for opioid drugs.”

The team has focused its research efforts on the immune receptor known as Toll-Like receptor 4 (TLR4).

“Opioid drugs such as morphine and heroin bind to TLR4 in a similar way to the normal immune response to bacteria. The problem is that TLR4 then acts as an amplifier for addiction,” Dr Hutchinson says.

“The drug (+)-naloxone automatically shuts down the addiction. It shuts down the need to take opioids, it cuts out behaviours[..]ociated with addiction, and the neurochemistry in the brain changes – dopamine, which is the chemical important for providing that sense of ‘reward’ from the drug, is no longer produced.”

Senior author Professor Linda Watkins, from the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder, says: “This work fundamentally changes what we understand about opioids, reward and addiction. We’ve suspected for some years that TLR4 may be the key to blocking opioid addiction, but now we have the proof.

“The drug that we’ve used to block addiction, (+)-naloxone, is a non-opioid mirror image drug that was created by Dr Kenner Rice in the 1970s. We believe this will prove extremely useful as a co-formulated drug with morphine, so that patients who require relief for severe pain will not become addicted but still receive pain relief . This has the potential to lead to major advances in patient and palliative care,” Professor Watkins says.

The researchers say clinical trials may be possible within the next 18 months.

This study has been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in the United States and the Australian Research Council (ARC).

To watch a video of Dr Mark Hutchinson talking about this study, please visit the University of Adelaide’s YouTube page:

isn't this treatment method similar to past ones though? correct me if I'm wrong but it doesn't seem permanent and even though it alters neurotransmitters an addict still have to use this drug instead of a weaker opiate

Bayer 'bout to send them goons with the quickness. [pic]

Yeah we have always had opiate blockers. But it can only block the opiate receptors temporarily. Naloxone is really old nothing new, i know because ive used it in my research.

Not exactly sure how this is new drug is different for humans... But we used Naloxone at the last lab i worked in to see the effects on the opiate receptor, and the reward pathway in the brain of birds. Maybe the use of Naloxone on humans is gearing up to be tested and approved. But either way we have had this drug for a decade. [pic]

Yeah I though suboxone does this already [pic]

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They must not be up on the "pill wave" that's sweeping the nation. They're saying Naloxone is the key but obviously there's new information, because with suboxone after you quit taking it you still have the urge and the withdrawal symptoms. Maybe this new discovery blocks the craving completely and helps tremendously with withdrawal pains[..]ociated with pill and herioin addicts.

Hmmmmm.

Tell them niccas to find a block for thc showing up in urine....then we can talk

this pill craze is nuts, it taken over the area i live in.... i never have seen a drug sweep thru and area and turn so many ppl into zombies... i know it has happened all over america with different substances and different times.... im just saying this is the 1st time i have seen it truly ruin my local area... the drive of not being sick to these ppl is almost as a strong as the drive to just be high... if this can get ppl off easier hopefully they wont be so worried about having to go thru withdrawls and sickness and successfully focus on getting clean [pic]

i have been on naloxone for the past 2 years its not a cure to opiate addiction the only way to stay clean that I have found that works with me and any other opiate addict that I have came across ( alot in the 17 rehabs I have been to and the 10 years i spent ripping and running) is the program of AA or NA

man i know how 2 mask thc,

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good old fashioned water, at least a gallon. vinegar. real cranberry juice, like a whole quart.

just another pill. wonder what the side effects are going to be......

it's mad mental, all them dope fiens just want to avoid being sick so much they freak out.

idk about the people on this, i just saw it and posted it.

i hope it works though, them pills/herion aint nada to f with right now!

The cure for opiate addiction is iboga.

You'll be on the brink of [rip] but when it's done you will no longer be addicted. It's damn near 100% success rate.

Yea...but they won't

Where can you cop that shyt at? Im a Roxie all star right now but hate the fact I have to have them or !! and be aching for days....