Source: Omaha World Herald April 24, 1997 NEWS; Pg. 3 FAX: OMAHA WORLDHERALD OMAHA NE 14023450183; BRAIN STUDY MAY HELP FIGHT COCAINE ADDICTION by Newsday Copyright (c) 1997, Omaha WorldHerald Company Researchers have shown how cocaine produces its high by studying the brains of addicts. The findings could lead to a way to prevent or treat cocaine addiction. Dr. Nora Volkow and her colleagues at Brookhaven National Laboratory used a brain scan to measure the brain chemical dopamine as cocaine traveled through addicts' systems. Dopamine's functions include regulating motivation, mood and movement. The scans measured the dopamine transporter, a system that moves dopamine from outside to inside cells. Scientists observed that the addicts experienced a high only when more than half of the transporters were occupied with cocaine. "I'm high on the findings," Michael Kuhar, a cocaine researcher and professor of medicine at Emory University, said of the study. It was reported Thursday in the journal Nature. Specialists in the field say they finally see a way to devise treatments for some of the 2.1 million cocaine addicts in the United States. Many policy analysts say the true hope for progress in the drug war lies in strategies that reduce demand, rather than trying to attack supplies in Latin America or halt the narcotics at the border. In theory, scientists could develop drugs that bind to the dopamine transporter, which in effect would lock the brain's door to cocaine. Dr. Kuhar's lab has identified and is studying 15 substances that could work as nonaddicting treatments, functioning much as a nicotine patch does for smokers. Scientists at Columbia University are working on a cocaine vaccine, a similar approach that would use the body's immune system to build antibodies against cocaine, thus preventing much of the drug from reaching the brain. Another alternative is a cocaine antagonist, a medicine that blocks cocaine's penchant for the dopamine transporters and keeps it away from the brain.