Binge mutation
Scientists have discovered a gene that causes a person to go into binge drinking
Geneticists have found in human DNA a special gene GIRK3, which is responsible for protein synthesis, the violation of whose work in the body of mice turned them into binge alcoholics, according to an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Herman et al., GIRK3 gates activation of the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway by ethanol – VM).
"Mice that have the GIRK3 gene damaged or missing drink a lot or because they feel more pleasure from drinking alcohol and therefore they become more charged to "continue the banquet." Or they may go into binge drinking for the reason that they feel less pleasure and therefore they have to drink more to achieve the same state," explains Candis Contet from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla (in a press release The Scripps Research Institute TSRI Scientists Link Brain Protein to Binge-Drinking Behavior – VM).
Conte and her colleagues have found a potential explanation for why some people are more prone to binge alcoholism than others by observing changes in brain function when large amounts of ethyl alcohol molecules appear in it.
Experimenting on individual nerve cells in previous years, the authors of the article and many other groups of scientists noticed that alcohol strongly affects the operation of special channels on the surface of neurons that are encoded by genes from the GIRK family. These channels play an important role in the life of cells, controlling the strength of the signal they produce.
Biologists have focused their attention on the gene and protein GIRK3, through which cocaine and sodium oxybutyrate (a popular street stimulant) act. They tested whether it is associated with the formation of addiction or other manifestations of alcoholism by damaging this gene in the DNA of neurons in the mouse brain.
Initially, scientists did not see strong changes – genetically modified mice were just as willing to drink alcohol and as quickly removed it from the blood as their normal relatives. However, when Conte and her colleagues moved on to experiments simulating hours of sitting in a bar, they revealed an unexpected effect.
When mice had access to alcohol only for two hours a day, rodents with the disabled GIRK3 gene literally got drunk, drinking much more alcohol than their normal relatives.
According to scientists, this effect is due to the fact that in the body of normal mice, alcohol increases the frequency and strength of impulses in the pleasure center, acting on the GIRK3 channels and forcing them to pass more ions into the neurons than is required.
Therefore, apparently, the second assumption is closer to reality – mice with the GIRK3 gene removed can go on a binge for the reason that alcohol begins to act on them weaker than on their normal relatives.
Interestingly, adding additional copies of this gene to the pleasure center in the brain of mice led to the opposite effect – such rodents drank significantly less than individuals from the control group.
This, according to Conte and her colleagues, gives us hope that the problem of binge drinking can be solved medically if scientists manage to synthesize a substance that would enhance the work of GIRK3 channels in the body of chronic alcoholics and help them get out of binge drinking.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru12.05.2015