Cocaine is an illegal drug, often used for recreational purposes for the effects it produces. It is a highly addictive stimulant, made from the leaves of the coca plant native to South America. The effects it produces include It produces short-term euphoria, energy, and talkativeness. However, it also produces potentially dangerous physical effects like raising heart rate and blood pressure. It increases the risk that the user will experience a heart attack, stroke, seizure or respiratory. In the past, cocaine was used as a topical anesthetic in eye and nasal surgery.
The powdered form of cocaine is snorted or inhaled through the nose, or dissolved in water and injected into the bloodstream. “Freebase cocaine” or Crack is a processed rock crystal that is heated to produce vapors that are absorbed into the blood-stream through the lungs. The term “crack” refers to the crackling sound produced by the rock as it is heated.
There are many issues surrounding cocaine, ranging from drug cartels and the drugs trade, to the popularization of cocaine due to the media.
A new scientific study was conducted to determine the effects of cocaine on the brain, in particularly high doses. The study suggests high doses convince brain cells to kill themselves, or apoptosis. Mice were tested to look at the effects, and the ultimate approach is to find therapies designed to disrupt the cell suicide process. This could potentially prevent or reverse the negative effects of cocaine in human beings.
Researchers found that cocaine can trigger one destructive cell suicide processes, known as autophagy, in mice. The cocaine causes autophagy, and important organelles in healthy brain cells, such as mitochondria, are destroyed or removed from the system.
After test cocaine’s effects on the brains of mice, the team tried to disrupt the chemical processes that trigger cell suicide. A experimental drug known only as “CGP3466B” could interfere with both chemicals, so they tested the drug on mouse cells that had been exposed to particularly high levels of cocaine. The results were a success and the drug is in development stages of being tested on mice, and later clinical trials on humans who abuse cocaine.
The following is a video of how cocaine causes an effect on the brain, with a review of the neurotransmitter dopamine, and how cocaine works in the synapse between neurons.
I think the new scientific discovery is important as now the mechanism is more well understand and since there is a high demand for drugs, that fuel the drug trade, this is a problem that needs solutions. I feel the media is often one part of the problem, with its glamorization of the drug. Hopefully the drug will make it to clinical trials and find a positive effects on humans drug users seeking help.
