UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Hypertension drug reduces cocaine cravings

BOSTON, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggests diltiazem, used to treat hypertension, can also reduce cocaine cravings in a rat model.

Researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School noted previous studies showed two brain chemicals, dopamine and glutamate, independently contribute to the development of cocaine addiction.

The researchers said their new findings indicate calcium channels provide critical links between dopamine and glutamate that drives the intense craving associated with cocaine addiction.

Diltiazem, one of a class of drugs known as calcium channel blockers, disrupts the connection between dopamine and glutamate formed during chronic cocaine use.

BU Professor Chris Pierce said there are no effective drug therapies for cocaine addiction, but research such as his using animal models could lead to desperately needed medications.

"The strength of this work is that it tells us something fundamental about how brain chemistry changes as cocaine addiction takes hold," said Pierce. "Importantly, our findings also suggest new strategies for developing cocaine addiction therapies, which thus far remain elusive."

The study appears in the March issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Jules Vern moves to its launcher

PARIS, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- The European Space Agency's first automated transfer vehicle, the Jules Verne, has been placed on top of an Ariane 5 rocket for launch from French Guiana.

The Jules Verne -- encapsulated in a huge container on top of the launcher with a total mass of about 21,000 tons -- will become the largest payload ever launched by Ariane 5. The historic mission with the first European space supplier for the International Space Station is scheduled for a night-time launch March 8 from the ESA spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

During the next week all connections -- electrical, pyrotechnical and fluid interfaces -- will be checked on the ATV and Ariane 5, the ESA said. One week before liftoff, all launch teams and different control centers around the world will simulate a full 10-hour countdown.

The Jules Verne is to dock with the orbiting space station in early April.

MIT develops new antibiotic

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists have developed a new type of antibiotic derived from soil-dwelling bacteria.

The researchers said the new antibiotic holds promise for treatment of Helicobacter pylori, which causes stomach ulcers in humans. The new antibiotic was produced by a "battle for survival," in which one bacterium was pitted against another strain for dominance.

The researchers said determining the still murky explanation for exactly how the new antibiotic -- named rhodostreptomycin -- was created might help scientists develop strategies for finding other new antibiotics.

The study that involved MIT Professors Anthony Sinskey and ChoKyun Rha; researchers Philip Lessard, T.G. Sambandan and Kazuhiko Kurosawa; and University of Florida scientists Ion Ghiviriga and Joanna Barbara is reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Scientists make detailed brainstem images

PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have developed a technique that can, for the first time, produce three-dimensional, high-resolution images of the human brainstem.

The brainstem, a small structure located at the base of the brain, controls such biological functions as breathing and experiences of reward or pleasure. It is also a site for the production of neurotransmitters, the overabundance or absence of which in other parts of the brain are associated with disorders such as schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease.

"For a long time, scientists have tried looking at this area of the brain and have been unsuccessful -- it's just too small," said Kimberlee D'Ardenne, a postdoctoral student at Princeton University and lead author of the study.

She and her colleagues obtained the images by applying specialized techniques to functional magnetic resonance imaging. The three-dimensional images allow scientists to observe the brain processes that accompany human movement and mental activities with unprecedented precision.

The Princeton researchers said they plan to use the new technique to understand how the brain's physical structures give rise to the functions of the mind -- a field known as cognitive neuroscience.

The study appears in the journal Science.