Findings might lead to the development of new drugs or technologies
Inscer/PUCRS researchers
Photo: Bruno Todeschini – PUCRS
PUCRS and the Brain Institute of Rio Grande do (BraIns) Sul have signed an international cooperation agreement with the University of Texas – Health Science Center at Houston (USA) to conduct an unprecedented study on crack addiction. Headed by BraIns researcher and School of Humanities professor, Dr Rodrigo Grassi-Oliveira and by researchers Joy Schimitz and Consuelo Walss-Bass, from UTHealth, the five-year study has three main goals: to promote the gene mapping of 1,000 crack users and 1,000 controls (non users); to assess the impact of the exposure to violence / stress and how this could “mark” the DNA; and check whether HIV could modify the DNA of users in important areas for the cognitive and behavioral performance.
The study relies on a budget of 2,6 million dollars from the National Institute of Health (NIH) of the USA. BraIns and PUCRS are about to become one of the few institutions to rely on a principal investigator (PI) responsible for a grant program R01 outside the US soil. R01 is one of the most traditional mechanisms used by NIH to support innovative research in order to foster improvements to human health.
In Grassi-Oliveira’s view, the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab (the laboratory he oversees) has been collecting blood samples of crack users who volunteered to the study in order to create a large biorepository, containing 2,000 samples that will be studied (including controls). In the initial stage of the investigation, the entire DNA of each sample will be fully “scanned” for genetic alterations that may be associated with crack use.
Then, researchers will be committed to finding the DNA features that are associated to the exposure to violence and stress over the course of the user’s life. As many as 2,5 million DNA areas of each participant will be analyzed. In the third stage, assuming the existence of DNA alterations by virtue of violence or drug consumption, researchers will be able to investigate the samples from HIV+ participants, to be found at the same biorepository. This part of the study is intended to identify whether the presence of the virus is able to damage the mechanisms of consumption control, thus bringing complications to the treatment.
He adds that one of the most important benefits of the study is to show new targets of intervention that promote methods to consolidate the treatment the addicts go through. “Researchers are mostly committed to making discoveries rather than testing pre-defined targets. We want to employ the cutting edge technology available at both institutions to investigate these pieces of information present in the DNA of users and controls in more detail”, says he. Grassi and his team hope that the results lead to the development of new drugs or technologies, which will have implications in the design of prevention policies. “Addicts tend to seek treatment when the situation is out of control. Most of the actions should be done when the addiction is not fully developed, or rather, before it even begins”. The study also features UFRGS and UTHealth researchers as well PUCRS’ graduate students Breno Sanvicente-Vieira and Thiago Wendt Viola.
Brazil – USA
According to the last National Survey on Alcohol and Drug Consumption (LENAD), conducted in 2012 all over Brazil, more than 2 million Brazilians are crack/cocaine users or have tried them at least once. This is quite a worrisome picture for Brazil, as it accounts for 20% of the world consumption. One of the most striking factors is that only 1% of these users seek treatment. Back in the same year, the National Institute of Research into Public Policies of Alcohol and Other Drugs (Inpad) of the Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp) showed that the USA has 4,1 million users. Because of that, researchers have joined efforts to understand the relationship between genetic and environmental factors involved in crack abuse in both countries in detail.
