Meth may affect health decades later

CHARLESTON, S.C., Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Youth who use methamphetamine may be more vulnerable to age-related brain degeneration when older, the Medical University of South Carolina suggested.

"Methamphetamine intoxication in any young adult may have deleterious consequences later in life, although they may not be apparent until many decades after the exposure,” study leader Jacqueline McGinty said.

"These studies speak directly to the possibility of long-term public health consequences resulting from the current epidemic of methamphetamine abuse among young adults."

The study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, found methamphetamine puts young users at risk of developing deficits later in life that are symptomatic of Parkinson’s disease because of a depletion of glial derived neurotrophic factor, or GDNF -- a protein that protects and repairs dopamine in areas of the brain related to movement control.

In the study, adolescent mice with a partial GDNF gene deletion and mice without gene deletion were given either methamphetamine or saline injections.

The study finds that the effects of a methamphetamine binge were exacerbated in the mice with the GDNF deletion.