Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : June 8, 2022 12:32 PM IST
Quitting alcohol isn't easy and relapse is common during the treatment.
Heavy alcohol use or alcohol abuse has been linked to increased risk of health problems such as liver diseases, heart attack, heart failure, cancer, injuries, and more. If you've been misusing alcohol for years, giving it up can significantly benefit your body and mind. But we also know that quitting drinking isn't easy. One may experience some short-term effects or withdrawal symptoms when stopping drinking. Moreover, relapse is also common during the first year of recovery following their treatment. Now, scientists at Scripps Research have discovered the culprit that drives alcoholism relapse.
They have found evidence that an immune protein in the brain may contribute to feelings of anxiety during withdrawal from excessive alcohol use and contributes to relapse. Based on their finding, they suggested that the immune protein, colony stimulating factor 1 (CSF1), could be a new target of treatments for alcohol use disorder (AUD).
"Alcohol withdrawal activates the stress system in the brain, which contributes to relapse, and in this study, we linked this stress response to CSF1, a neuroimmune mediator, opening up new opportunities for therapeutic intervention," said study senior author Marisa Roberto, as quoted by Science Daily.
Roberto is the professor and Schimmel Family Chair in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research.
The study findings were recently reported online in Molecular Psychiatry.
Alcohol is known to be the most used and abused recreational drug. An alcohol use disorder (AUD) is understood as the inability to control alcohol use despite its negative impact on the user's health, social life and/or employment.
For treatment of alcohol use disorder, there are many options including drug treatments, talk-therapy and support group-based treatments. However, relapse is common during these treatments. This is mainly due to the limited understanding of the brain-circuit dysfunctions underlying AUD, according to the researchers.
Alcohol withdrawal symptoms, particularly feelings of anxiety, is known to contribute to relapse. This symptom is known to be caused at least in part by the release of stress molecules such as corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) within the brain. Scientists know that CRF stimulates receptors on neurons that process emotions, but the CRF-sensitive neuronal populations remain unknown until now.
In the mice study, Roberto and her team, identified a population of neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of the brain that are sensitive to CRF because they express a CRF receptor called CRF1. They also showed that these neurons are involved in altering mood and behaviour during alcohol exposure and withdrawal.
Further, they found that deletion of these CRF-sensitive neurons made the mice less anxious, suggesting that the neurons normally mediate anxiety-like behaviours. Intriguingly, alcohol withdrawal also induced large increases in CSF1 gene expression within these neurons, they researchers said.
Based on these findings, the research team suggested that elevated CSF1 levels in mPFC may be a key driver of alcohol-withdrawal signs and symptoms.
Reesha R. Patel, the study's first author, stated that targeting CSF1 may be a good strategy for treating alcohol use disorder.
The team at Scripps Research is now planning to test this strategy in their preclinical models.
