Western University of Health Sciences recently received a
substantial grant from the National Institutes of Health to support a
three-year study on cocaine addiction and treatment.
Dr. Kabir Lutfy, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences
at Western University of Health Sciences, received the $510,000 grant
from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, an NIH agency. The NIH is an
agency within the Department of Health and Human Services and serves as
the principal biomedical research arm of the federal government.
Dr. Lutfy’s work involves the use of laboratory animals (mice and
rats) that have been deliberately addicted to cocaine, and the use of
treatment agents designed to prevent or curb cocaine addiction.
Dr. Lutfy has previously discovered that there is a normally-occurring
substance in the brain which, if administered to an animal prior to
cocaine administration, prevents the effect of the cocaine in the
animal. This preventive substance, a peptide known as orphanin FQ, can
be prepared synthetically in the laboratory; it is this synthetic
material that is used in the study.
Using his NIH grant, Dr. Lutfy will now study whether repeated
cocaine use (in test animals) will alter the amount of orphanin FQ
produced in the brain. He will also investigate the particular receptor
sites in the brain where this preventive substance (orphanin FQ) actually
works.
Dr. Max Ray, dean of Western University of Health Science’s College
of Pharmacy, said Dr. Lutfy’s work will lead to better understanding of
cocaine addiction in humans and how it can be treated or prevented.
“”We are very pleased that NIH has recognized the abilities of one of
our faculty members and has agreed to support his work,”” Ray said.