New findings about alcohol’s effects on the brain and potential drug treatments that prevent damage to brain cells has led to three federal grants totaling $3.1 million for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).
The grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will advance the work of UAMS’ Cynthia J.M. Kane, Ph.D., and Paul D. Drew, Ph.D., professors in the Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences of the College of Medicine. Their studies could become the foundation for medicines that block the toxic effects of alcohol as well as treat alcoholism
"We’re excited about our findings, and this new round of funding gives us the opportunity to take a major step toward preventing the neurological harm caused by alcohol," said Kane, an alcohol researcher at UAMS. "It is my hope that adults, adolescents, and even the fetuses of alcoholic mothers can benefit."
Kane and her colleagues found in earlier studies that drinking causes loss of neurons in the brain and that glial cells (which provide support and protection for neurons) are also primary targets of alcohol. In addition, they discovered that alcohol’s impact on the glial cells increases the vulnerability of neurons to alcohol damage.
Kane, Drew, and others at UAMS have been studying the signaling mechanisms inside neurons and glial cells that cause alcohol consumption to result in neuron and glial cell death, failed communication between cells, impaired brain function, and inflammation within the brain. Their discoveries led to the identification of drugs that block this cascade of events, preventing the inflammation, neurodegeneration, and death and dysfunction of brain cells.
Kane’s alcohol research at UAMS was seeded by funds from the UAMS Foundation and has been continuously funded by NIH since 2000. She is the lead investigator, with Drew as co-investigator, on the largest of the three new grants: $1.7 million over five years.
The grant will enable Kane and Drew to focus on the mechanisms by which the drugs provide protection against alcohol and evaluate their success individually as well as in combination therapies.
"The drugs we are looking at right now are FDA-approved drugs," Kane said. "If we find that they work, then they well may be able to be used in humans."
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