MEDICINE
Study hints at new addiction therapy
A new nanotechnology treatment for drug addiction may be on the horizon, according to a study by University at Buffalo researchers.
Scientists at UB developed a stable nanoparticle that delivers short RNA molecules in the brain to turn off a gene that plays a critical role in many kinds of drug addiction.
The team’s laboratory results were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“These findings mean that in the future, we might be able to add a powerful pharmaceutical agent to the current arsenal of weapons in order to more effectively fight a whole range of substance addictions,” said Paras N. Prasad, executive director of the UB Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics and lead researcher.
The new approach also may be applicable to treating Parkinson’s disease, cancer and other disorders.
The paper describes the development of a way to silence DARPP-32, a brain protein, understood to be a trigger for the cascade of signals that occurs in drug addiction. Silencing of the DARPP- 32 gene with certain kinds of ribonucleic acid, called short interfering RNA, or siRNA, can inhibit production of this protein.
However, scientists have needed to find a way to safely and efficiently deliver the siRNA, which is not stable by itself, past the blood-brain barrier. The UB researchers were successful when they combined the siRNA molecules with gold nanoparticles shaped like rods, called nanorods.
“The findings of this study tell us that these nanoparticles are both a safe and very efficient way of delivering to a variety of tissues highly sophisticated new drugs that turn off abnormal genes,” said Dr. Stanley A. Schwartz, professor in the departments of medicine, pediatrics and microbiology, and a co-author on the study.
Funding for the research came from the National Cancer Institute, the Kaleida Health Foundation, the John R. Oishei Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.
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