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All Friday Fun Fact Marvelous Monday Messy Media News You Can Use Tuesday Talk
1/26/2018 Predicting Designer Drugs of the FutureBackground:In the spring of 2012 in Miami, Florida, a naked man attacked and attempted to eat the face another man, having to be shot several times by the police to be stopped. It was later discovered that the attacker was intoxicated with alpha-PVP, or “flakka,” a brand new, technically legal drug that acted like cocaine, but was 50 times more potent. New psychoactive substances like alpha-PVP are an increasing problem, being readily available online and having unpredictable properties. Our research seeks to understand how these drugs work on the molecular level, so that we can guide public policy, reduce harm, and learn more about the parts of the brain involved in psychiatric illnesses. Designing drugs:Many popular psychoactive drugs, like cocaine or LSD, are currently illegal. This has driven the development of the “designer drug,” or “research chemicals” market, in which clandestine chemists, often in China, take known drugs and modify their chemical structure only slightly. They make these new drugs in bulk and sell them on the internet, often to those looking to use drugs that won’t be detected on routine drug screens, or those interested in experimenting with novel substances. A small change to a drug molecule, however, can have serious effects. What once was a stimulant can become a hallucinogen, or vice versa. New types of toxicity can be added, as in the case of alpha-PVP; some users have reported a phenomenon of persistent psychotic symptoms which remain after only one or two uses. This could explain the erratic, even cannabilistic behavior of the Miami “flakka zombie.” No other drug has been associated with this effect before. What local VCU labs are doing:It’s important to be able to predict the effects of new psychoactive substances, and our work is directed at that goal. Never tested before being marketed to consumers, and unregulated by any institution, these drugs carry considerable risk. In order to predict drug effects before they are even available, we create models targeted around specific drugs that are associated with interesting effects, for example, alpha-PVP. We design a series of similar structures that vary only slightly from one another, synthesize them, and test them on their targets in the brain, the serotonin and dopamine transporters. These proteins are important in regulating mood, motivation, and many more behavioral processes. They are often the targets not only of drugs like alpha-PVP and cocaine, but also antidepressants and ADHD medications. As such, our models provide information relevant to neuroscience and future psychiatric medication development, besides information about new psychoactive substances. What to conclude:What we learn from testing our model compounds allows us to predict new psychoactive substance properties. With this information, regulatory agencies can make proactive decisions about what to add to drug schedules. Users can make informed choices to avoid the most likely dangerous compounds, even if these compounds have never been tested. In this way, we can avoid flakka zombies in the future. AuthorsRachel Davies, Jessica L. Bourdon, & Elizabeth C. Long 1/19/2018 Does Nutella Really Cause Cancer?Media Headlines:What the media says:Each article summarizes a recent study by the European Food Safety Authority which found that palm oil was associated with an aggressive spread of cancer in mice. Palm oil is an essential ingredient in Nutella that is responsible for its smooth texture and shelf life. However, only two articles acknowledge that due to the fact that no human studies have been done on the risks of palm oil (i.e., if it causes cancer in humans, what amounts are cancerous, etc.) means that the conclusions of the study are preliminary and more research is needed. Journal title:What the article actually says:The actual report from the European Food Safety Authority is 159 pages and is very technical. In sum, the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain investigated the risks for human health related to the presence of three compounds in palm oil: 3-MCPD, 2-MCPD, and glycidol. Researchers found the highest amounts of these substances in palm oil/fat. Smaller amounts were found in many other foods, such as margarine, potato crisps, pastries, and cookies. It was found that these compounds had negative effects in mice and rats, including: renal toxicity (short-term 3-MCPD exposure); benign tumors of the testes, mammary gland, and kidneys (long-term 3-MCPD exposure); neurotoxicity (short-term glycidol exposure); tumor production in multiple organs in all rodents and anti-fertility in males (long-term glycidol exposure). No conclusions could be made about the effects of 2-MCPD. Ultimately, the Panel concludes that, at certain doses, 3-MCPD and glycidol indicate a health concern. However, more data is needed and more extensive testing of dose-response is needed. This study makes no mention of Nutella. Why the media is messy:
Bottom line:It is not as simple as “Nutella causes cancer.” In mice and rats, tumor production was observed at certain doses, but we do not know how these findings generalize to humans. More research is needed to definitively know the extent to which, and at what doses, Nutella poses a health risk in humans. AuthorsElizabeth C. Long & Jessica L. Bourdon What was studied and why?Emotion regulation, or how people experience and respond to their emotions, is a broad concept that is not well understood at the biological level. Examining how a person’s genes influence their emotional experience might increase this understanding. Thus, this paper reviewed the recent literature on how genes contribute to one’s regulation of their emotional experience and offered insights as to what questions remain that future research might answer. Reference: Hawn, S.E., Overstreet, C.M., Stewart, K.E., & Amstadter, A.B. (2014). Recent Advances in the Genetics of Emotion Regulation: A Review. Current Opinion in Psychology, 3, 108-116. How was it studied?To provide an updated review on the genetics of emotion regulation, the authors researched other papers that had been written in the previous 3 years about how and which genes play a role in emotion regulation. This information was summarized in table format describing each of the reviewed studies. Similarities and differences were discussed in text. What was found?There were three genes (5-HTTLPR , COMT val158met , TPH2) that had been found by the majority of recent studies to influence emotion regulation. Depending on the variant of each gene that people had, they were either better or worse at regulating their emotions. What is the bottom line?How people experience and respond to their emotions is at least partially influenced by biology. Want to learn more?Check out this article: Canli, T., Ferri, J., Duman, E.A. (2009). Genetics of emotion regulation.
Neuroscience, 164, 43-54.
This review provides a detailed examination of the literature prior to 2009 concerning processes associated with emotion regulation. AuthorsSage Hawn, Elizabeth C. Long, & Jessica L. Bourdon |