MONDAY, Dec. 15, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Blocking the activity of the neurotransmitter neuropeptide Y (NPY) may help reduce alcohol consumption, says a study in the December issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
The finding may prove important in efforts to find new ways to treat alcohol abuse and dependence.
Neurotransmitters are chemicals used by brain cells to communicate with each other. NPY plays an important role in a number of functions, including anxiety, pain, memory and feeding behaviors.
Previous animal research implicated NPY systems in alcohol abuse and alcoholism. This new study is the first to show that a compound that blocks NPY may prove useful in treating alcohol problems.
"NPY is the most potent stimulant of feeding behavior known," study co-author Clyde W. Hodge, an associate professor in the department of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says in a prepared statement.
"For example, the primary brain region involved in control of eating is the hypothalamus. Animal studies have shown that repeated treatment of the hypothalamus with NPY produces dietary obesity in otherwise normal rats. We suspect that alcohol may usurp brain systems that evolved to perform other functions, such as eating, because these neural systems evolved long before humans discovered alcoholic beverages. Alcohol and drug abuse, therefore, can be considered disorders of consumption," Hodge says.
In studies with mice, he and his colleagues found that a compound called L-152,804 blocked the action of NPY. The researchers say that L-152,804 has the potential to both prevent relapse and decrease active drinking among chronic alcoholics.
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