Cocaine and the vulnerable teen brain

New findings might help explain why risk of drug abuse and addiction increase so dramatically when cocaine use begins during teenage years.

When first exposed to cocaine, the adolescent brain launches a strong defensive reaction designed to minimize the drug’s effects, according to scientists. Now two new studies by a Yale University team identify key genes that regulate this response and show that interfering with this reaction dramatically increases a mouse’s sensitivity to cocaine. The results were published in the February 14 and February 21, 2012 issues of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Researchers have shown that vulnerability to cocaine is much higher in adolescence, when the brain is shifting from an explosive and plastic growth phase to more settled and refined neural connections characteristic of adults. Past studies at Yale University have shown that the neurons and their synaptic connections in adolescence change shape when first exposed to cocaine through molecular pathway regulated by the gene integrin beta1, which is crucial to the development of the nervous system of vertebrates.

Anthony Koleske, professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry and of neurobiology At Yale University, is senior author of both papers. He said:

This suggests that these structural changes observed are probably protective of the neurocircuitry, an effort of the neuron to protect itself when first exposed to cocaine.

In the latest study, Yale researchers report when they knocked out this pathway, mice needed approximately three times less cocaine to induce behavioral changes than mice with an intact pathway.

The research suggests that the relative strength of the integrin beta1 pathway among individuals may explain why some cocaine users end up addicted to the drug while others escape its worst effects, Koleske theorized. He said:

If you were to become totally desensitized to cocaine, there is no reason to seek the drug.

Bottom line: New findings by Yale University scientists, published in February 2012 in the Journal of Neuroscience, might help explain why risk of drug abuse and addiction increase so dramatically when cocaine use begins during teenage years.