An international team of scientists has discovered a means of
curbing addictions to morphine and heroin in mice and rats while
alleviating chronic pain. By targeting a certain type of pain-
receptor cell that amplifies drug cravings the team is confident
it has found a mechanism in the human immune system that will
eventually lead to more effective therapies for treating
addictions to opiates. “We are identifying a whole new player in
this game of drug addiction and chronic pain, which changes how
you approach it,” says Linda Watkins, a neuroscience professor
at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the team’s lead
researcher. “Are we walking down a path where you can increase
the usefulness of opiates without making a whole bunch of drug
addicts? We think so.” In conjunction with Mark Hutchinson, ARC
Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide, in Australia,
Watkins published an article about the findings in the Aug. 15
edition of The Journal of Neuroscience. The research, funded
largely by grants from t