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New Scientist African herb yields its anti-addiction secret

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African herb yields its anti-addiction secret

22 January 2005

From New Scientist Print Edition.

THE secret of an African herb that helps drug addicts and alcoholics kick the habit has been discovered. The finding could lead to safer and more effective medications for treating addiction.

Since the 1960s, many addicts have reported that even a single dose of ibogaine, a hallucinogenic alkaloid extracted from the root of an African shrub, helps them kick their habit by reducing their cravings for drugs. And there is hard evidence to back these claims, as well. However, troubling side effects - including heart problems and several deaths - have kept ibogaine from being widely accepted as a medical treatment. Instead, a few researchers have begun searching for ways to deliver ibogaine's benefits without its risks (New Scientist, 26 April 2003, p 34).

A few previous studies have suggested that becoming addicted to a substance lowers the production of a nerve growth factor called glial cell-line derived neurotrophic factor, or GDNF. So Dorit Ron's team at the University of California, San Francisco, decided to test whether ibogaine affects GDNF levels in the brain.

In rats injected with ibogaine, the researchers found that production of GDNF increased in a region of the brain called the ventral tegmental area. What's more, injecting either ibogaine or GDNF itself directly into this brain area decreased alcohol cravings in addicted rats, whereas injecting anti-GDNF antibodies eliminated any beneficial effect of ibogaine. The results appear in The Journal of Neuroscience.

"The paper looks very solid," says Stanley Glick, a neuropharmacologist at Albany Medical Center in New York, who has studied ibogaine for many years. "They may indeed be on to a major finding." However, both Glick and Ron point out that boosting GDNF may be only one of several mechanisms by which ibogaine acts to ease addiction.

A synthetic ibogaine compound, 18-methoxycoronaridine, which Glick has shown can help addicts with fewer harmful side effects than ibogaine, may also work by controlling GDNF levels. In preliminary studies with cultured nerve cells, Ron's team found that 18-MC also raises GDNF levels.

But the team is not pursuing the ibogaine approach. Instead, Ron thinks it is time to narrow her focus. "Our idea now is to move away from ibogaine and concentrate on GDNF," she says. Her team plans to look for ways to stimulate GDNF without side effects.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=...=mg18524834.200

[ 21. January 2005, 09:02: Message edited by: Jack ]

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you won't see a lot of research on ibogaine no matter what, because there are already two peopel fighting over the patent and any third contender is even more likely to miss out. And yeah, an unpatentable medicine is totally unintersting to researchers cos they can't make any money.

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Haha thats just silly? Couldnt they just both sign an agreement and then both invest equally and share the profits?

If it continues as is then neither will gain which is just silly for them and sad that many people wont be able to benefit from this.

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In a seminar about 6 years ago I heard about genetically engineered proteins of very high molecular weight that are engineered with multiple specific sites, which can bind a range of drugs. These proteins are too large to leave the bloodstream. Any ingested drugs would be bound to these proteins and unable to gain access to the brain and so you would be unable to get stoned or addicted.

It is proposed that parents could have their children immunised against drug addiction with these proteins. Back then this had progressed to animal trials.

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Do you think they are missing the point entirely? i do

whats a life changing therapy without a little confrontation and soul searching, a little transformation and resolution???

what is the sanitised cotton wool version of life and psychology they are pushing??

they make a flaw of logic that the Doctor/medicine heals the patient. This is never the case.

The patient always heals themselves, facilitated by the doctor/medicine, but the crisis is always ultimately resolved by the one with the sickness.

[ 22. January 2005, 22:52: Message edited by: reville ]

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what do people make of the recent Mindmed inc research into 18-methoxycoronaridine? What do people think of the future potential of this company?

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45 minutes ago, paradox said:

what do people make of the recent Mindmed inc research into 18-methoxycoronaridine? What do people think of the future potential of this company?

Thanks paradox, never heard of this until now. Here's the trial info if anyone's interested. 

 

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04292197

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