Can Taking Legal Speed Cure Your Coke Addiction?

It’s hard to deny the aesthetic appeal of Mia Wallace with her starchy white shirt and black bob haircut kneeling down in the bathroom of Jack Rabbit Slim’s to “powder her nose.” Unfortunately, as even Uma Thurman’s legendary character has to learn, a penchant for blow can lead to unexpected problems.

This is why researchers continue to try to thwart cocaine’s addictive properties, even at the risk of making memorable scenes from Pulp Fiction seem dated. Many current approaches to solving the problem of cocaine addiction bear hallmarks of potential success, but none seem perfect, at least right now.

One approach is the development of vaccines. Vaccines that treat addiction to cocaine, or other drugs, rely on clever re-engineering of viruses like the one that causes the common cold. Researchers repurpose the viruses by attaching molecules to them that are structurally similar to the drugs in question. Then, they let the immune system react to them as they would any other virus. The body produces antibodies that recognize their distinctive shapes, prompting destruction of anything resembling them, i.e. actual drugs. These vaccines basically trick your body to destroy cocaine before it can get you high.

People have complained that some of these vaccines only nullify the psychoactive effect without actually reducing cravings. A 2010 human trial of one vaccine left addicted recipients buying drugs in hopes of ephemeral satiation, only to be greatly disappointed when the drugs no longer worked. After continuing to buy cocaine, instead of just giving up on the unattainable high, some basically went broke.

Aside from vaccination, researchers are looking to make use of optogenetics in the treatment of cocaine addiction. Optogenetics is one of the hottest new tools in neuroscience. It utilizes genetic modification of organisms to express a protein called channelrhodopsin, originally found in unicellular green algae.

Channelrhodopsin is responsive to light. It helps algae move to follow the sun so that they can continually photosynthesize. When expressed in brain cells via genetic engineering, however, the protein essentially serves as an on/off switch for neurons. When researchers want to activate neurons expressing channelrhodopsin, all they have to do is point near-infrared light at them.

Quick digression: Is this a proof-of-concept for what might be a rudimentary form of mind control? You be the judge.

According to Antonello Bonci, scientific director of an intramural research program at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, when the researchers “turn on a laser light in the prelimbic region of the [rat] prefrontal cortex, the compulsive cocaine seeking is gone.” All it takes to beat the cravings, at least for a little while, is a prefrontal jolt.

Sounds great. The only problem is that getting cocaine addicts to express this algal gene and then zapping them with lasers doesn't really seem like a feasible possibility. Researchers suggest that humans could instead receive transcranial magnetic stimulation for a similar effect, although it’s unclear how effective even that would be in the long-term.

Other approaches to quelling cocaine addiction ignore viruses and laser stimulation in favor of good ole’ pharmaceutical compounds. One such compound, graced with the poetic name CGP3466B, seems to specifically target the neural pathways whose disturbance lead to cocaine addiction.

It does so by blocking the impact of a cellular signaling molecule called nitric oxide, or NO. At normal doses, cocaine induces NO to interact with a protein called GAPDH, which is normally involved in sugar metabolism. NO actually interrupts the normal function of GAPDH by bringing it into cell nuclei, where, assuming a normal dose of cocaine, it will lead to stimulation of the neuron. The neurons that fall victim to this unexpected stimulation are the ones whose activity determines addiction.

It turns out that CGP3466B keeps GAPDH from entering the nucleus despite cocaine-induced NO influence. It very specifically placates what's gone haywire in cocaine addicts' brain.

The compound, whose name I just don't feel like typing again, was originally developed as a treatment for Parkinson’s Disease and ALS, but it proved ineffective in clinical trials. It wasn't until scientists realized that cocaine affected similar pathways that interest in the compound spiked again. Solomon Snyder, a professor of neuroscience at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, thought it "serendipitous." He suggests that CGP3466B--I caved-- "might well be the first drug approved to treat cocaine addiction."

Still, it's just too soon to tell. Sometimes game-changers come from unexpected places. You may have heard recent reports, for example, of Ritalin showing promise as a treatment for cocaine addiction.

That's right everybody, treat your stimulant addiction by doing more stimulants! It might sound ridiculous, but who can really say? Science surprises.

Whatever comes to fruition, we can be sure that its manipulation and/or extinguishing of our habits and inclinations will be both profound and a little spooky. Until then, let's savor romantic pop cultural notions of cocaine being one hell of a drug, hopefully without doing it and becoming junkies and stuff.