GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Swedish scientists say they've shown fruit flies, already used in human disease research, might be helpful in studying the effects of drug abuse on the brain.
Andrew Ewing and colleagues at Sweden's University of Gothenburg say laboratory mice, rats and monkeys have been mainstays in research with the goal of finding effective medicines for treating addiction. Although those mammals have helped establish the behavioral effects of cocaine on the body, the scientists said they provide relatively complicated models to study the effects of cocaine and other illicit drugs on the brain and nerves.
In the new study, the scientists gave such drugs as cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and methylphenidate to fruit flies and then studied the flies' brain chemistry with a microelectrode 1/20 the diameter of a human hair.
The results, said the researchers, demonstrate fruit flies are a valid model for studying drug addiction in humans.
The study appeared in the Oct. 26 online edition of the journal Chemical Neuroscience.
