Understanding the Specifics of a Drug’s Chemical Reactions

The more we know about how a specific drug affects the brain and body, the more specialized can be the treatment and intervention when a person becomes addicted to that drug. While it is helpful to understand drug classifications and generalized side-effects, it’s potentially even more useful to tag specific outcomes to specific drugs.

If we understand how the addictive high is chemically achieved, then it becomes possible to undermine the drug’s reward value.

This concept is explored in a new study reported in the Science section of a major newspaper. The study examined how cocaine and morphine differ in the way the two drugs impact dopamine.

Both drugs create the sought-for feelings of euphoria by accessing dopamine. This research however, identified a single chemical Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor(BDNF) which heightens dopamine’s euphoria with one drug and tones it down with the other. The chemical BDNF accentuates dopamine pleasure with cocaine use but with morphine use it reduces the sensation.

Cocaine produces a feeling of high by blocking a cell’s reuptake of dopamine. Normally dopamine flows from one cell to another and any excess is taken back up by the original sending cell. By blocking the reuptake of dopamine, the pleasure-inducing substance is trapped between cells and is experienced far more intensely than otherwise. This is not news.

However, the study did discover that BDNF increases cellular sensitivity to dopamine which not only boosts the high, but strengthens the addiction.

With morphine, on the other hand, BDNF has quite the opposite effect. Rather than dialing up the euphoria, the chemical dials it down. Scientists found that by blocking BDNF the pleasure effects of morphine were intensified.

The finding is a significant step toward being able to directly control whether or not addictive drugs like cocaine and morphine are able to produce their intoxicating effects.