Posted by linkadge on November 13, 2005, at 18:36:17
In reply to Re: Opiates for depression? » linkadge, posted by jerrympls on November 13, 2005, at 18:08:44
I don't personally know how opiates supress neurogenesis, but the connection is being researched.
Drugs of abuse, such as opiates, THC, ethanol, and nicotine, are known to decrease the number of new hippocampal cells. We are exploring if all drugs of abuse, regardless of their mechanism of action, similarly alter adult hippocampal neurogenesis, and in delineating the cellular mechanisms underlie the ability of drugs of abuse to alter adult neurogenesis. For example, how do opiates alter the cell cycle of hippocampal progenitors? Do opiates act directly on the progenitors to alter the cell cycle, or do opiates alter hippocampal growth factors, and thus indirectly alter the cell cycle? We are using both traditional and novel approaches to cell cycle analysis to address these questions.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:575925
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051112/msgs/578304.html