New Research Findings Zero in on the Effects of Alcohol on the Brain
by Lisa Frederiksen
The Salk Institute, established some 40 years ago by Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine, announced findings by its researchers that “brings us closer to understanding how alcohol alters the way the brain cells work.” Reserachers anticipate that treatments for alcoholism, drug addiction and epilepsy will all benefit from these findings.
Quoting from the Institute’s press release:
“Ethanol, the alcohol in intoxicating beverages, is known to alter the communication between brain cells. ‘There’s been a lot of interest in the field to find out how alcohol acts in the brain,’ says Paul A. Slesinger, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Peptide Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute, who led the study. ‘One of several views held that ethanol works by interacting directly with ion channel proteins, but there were no studies that visualized the site of association.’
“Slesinger and his team now show that alcohols directly interact with a specific nook contained within a channel protein. This ion channel plays a key role in several brain functions associated with drugs of abuse and seizures.”
