One shot can get rid of alcoholism: how a vaccine created by scientists works
American scientists have told about the creation of a vaccine against alcoholism - they have shown in experiments on monkeys that a single injection of a gene preparation is sufficient for this purpose.How does this deliverer from harmful addiction work? Let us remind you how it arises. Alcohol, like other narcotic substances, is used to get pleasure. The hormone dopamine, which is called the hormone of joy, is responsible for it. Every living creature strives to get it. For example, there are known experiments with a rat, in whose brain electrodes were implanted, and she was able to stimulate the pleasure center by pressing the pedal, causing an electric discharge. So, it pressed the pedal for hours, could not stop and died refusing to eat because it directly accessed pleasure.
Dopamine levels rise with alcohol, a drug or some other substance. And the body gets into the pleasure zone.
But all good things come to an end. And in this case, abundant and frequent use of hot drinks makes the brain adapt - the dopamine surge becomes less and less, and therefore the pleasure goes away. To get it back, it is necessary to increase doses, preferably more often. This is how alcohol dependence is formed. Like any other addiction.
Scientists have decided to return the dopamine "holiday", but without alcohol. They worked with the GDNF gene. It encodes a protein that is associated with dopamine neurons. If the body is normal, it is quite enough, but in the state of addiction, when the brain begins to "cut back" on dopamine, it begins to lack.