Studies on the mechanisms of addiction have taken an unexpected step forward: a team of researchers from theUniversity of Utah he created fruit flies capable of becoming addicted to cocaine.
The research, led by Professor Adrian Rothenfluh of the Department of Psychiatry, was published on Journal of Neuroscience and promises to completely reframe the way we study addiction. Let's take a closer look? Without smelling.
How the new fly research works
La Drosophila melanogaster, commonly known as fruit fly, shares approximately 75% of the genes associated with human diseases. This makes it a perfect model organism for studying the biological mechanisms underlying substance addiction. However, researchers have run into a seemingly trivial but crucial problem: cocaine is absolutely disgusting to fruit flies.
When presented with a choice between plain sugar water and sugar water with cocaine, flies consistently chose the drug-free one. The reason? The bitter taste receptors on their paws They warned them of the presence of a potentially toxic substance.
“The aversion is due to taste receptors on the tarsal segments, the legs of flies, which they insert into the liquid even before it comes into contact with their mouths,” the study explains. Flies are evolutionarily programmed to avoid plant toxins, and cocaine is one such substance that comes from the coca plant.
The Genetic Engineering That Changed Everything
The breakthrough came with genetic engineering. Researchers specifically deactivated the receptors responsible for bitter taste aversion through advanced gene silencing techniques. The result was surprising: Within just 16 hours of the intervention, the flies began to show a marked preference for the water containing cocaine..
As emphasized Rothenfluh: “At low doses, they start running around, just like people. At very high doses, they become paralyzed, which is also true in people.” The behaviors observed in the engineered flies closely mirror those of humans exposed to the substance.
Research acceleration and model benefits
What makes this development particularly exciting is the speed with which we will now be able to conduct research. Fruit flies have a life cycle of just two weeks, compared to the months needed to generate genetically modified rodents. This means that It will be possible to study hundreds of potentially relevant genes in much shorter times.
The team hopes that this model will allow them to rapidly identify the molecular mechanisms underlying cocaine addiction and, possibly, develop new therapies. How highlighted in previous studies on fruit flies and alcohol, many of the genes that regulate drug responses in flies are also involved in substance use disorders in humans.
Cocaine-addicted midges: implications for medicine and research
The research on fruit flies and cocaine is part of a growing body of research that is showing how these little insects are more similar to us than we might imagine. As we have highlighted in this article, recent scientific statements even recognize a form of consciousness in insects, including fruit flies.
Rothenfluh stresses that “once again, the so-called 'humble' fruit fly turns out to be a good model organism for understanding the genetics and mechanisms of human disorders.” Engineered flies could become a critical tool for testing potential anti-addiction drugs and for better understanding genetic risk factors.
The Future of Addiction Research
This work is just the beginning. The researchers plan to use these flies to explore more complex aspects of addiction, including mechanisms of tolerance, withdrawal, and relapse. The fly model's speed of generation and low cost could significantly accelerate the discovery of new treatments for cocaine use disorder, for which there are currently no approved drug therapies.
Nature sometimes surprises us: who would have thought that a fruit fly could help us fight one of the most devastating addictions of our time? Yet by simply eliminating their ability to taste bitter, these little insects could pave the way for more effective treatments for the millions of people struggling with cocaine addiction.
