Like the strip to the mountain goat, some people have a small mutation in their DNA that predisposes them to cocaine addiction once they try it. Although this is a very preliminary finding, a team of researchers has found a gene that could explain why one in 10 people taking cocaine become dependent on this drug.
“The important thing is that we have found a first gene linked to vulnerability to cocaine addiction,” he explained IMABIS Foundation in Malaga, one of the Spanish scientists who collaborated in this study.
Although the brain is still today a great mystery, the continuing investigation of the body sheds little flashes of light on its operation. One thing we know is that drugs can give pleasure and addiction to act on the reward circuits. Cocaine, in particular, work by increasing the concentration of dopamine (the pleasure neurotransmitter) in the neurons of this system, thereby strengthening its consumption. (more…)
