Epigenetics and drug abuse

[MountainDeW]

Please post all information about drug modulated epigenetic modification here. Also post any information about research compounds that can reverse drug induced epigenetic changes. SAMe can cause epigenetic changes as well as cocaine. Counteracting the deleterious effects of drug induced epigenetic changes is the future of drug treatment. I wanted to post the article I have linked to this forum but it contains too many images. Perhaps an administrator could help me figure out what constitutes an image. Read the article and tell me what you think. Thanks!

http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/25/45/10379

[newgrower]

So do swiy think that counteracting the epigenetic changes would act only on physical addiction or on both physical and psychological addiction? Is the psychological addiction due to larger changes in the overall brain or mainly from the changes in gene expression
caused by these epigenetic changes?

[MountainDeW]

Both, the changes would be manifest as physical and psychological. The genes that regulate addiction contribute to addictive behaviors (psychological; drug seeking behavior, yearning at the sight of drugs) and (physical; withdrawal). By taking drugs into the body these epigenetic changes cause physical alterations of gene expression. If one of those changes regulates a brain function then the mind will experience this as a psychological symptom. The research into this topic is new and researchers originally manipulated epigenetic expression in hopes of controlling certain cancers. I am interested in compounds that will reverse the effects of drug abuse in the brain. I am sure there are drugs already floating around that can achieve positive results for counteracting another drugs influence. Speed ball anyone?

[MountainDeW]

This subject is kinda confusing so I thought I might try an analogy that I thought up. Drugs are like the sun and genes are like skin. Skin comes in many shades, from pale white to dark black/brown. These shades can be thought of as gene variants and with this variation comes differing response to various drugs/sun. The sun/drugs are as varied as the times of day. So in this analogy imagine a pale fellow being exposed to mid-day sun. He will be burned/tanned in response to the sun. The same can be said of the brain. When we take a drug into our bodies it is like a tanning of our brain, we cannot expect the same reaction to occur when we consume the drug again, just as the sun on a tanned shoulder will only cause further tanning.

Here is another article on the topic.

http://biology.plosjournals.org/perl...o.0050265&ct=1