Researchers have identified a protein called GAT-1 that appears to play a key role in the withdrawal symptoms experienced by people who stop using heroin and other “opioid” drugs, such as morphine and codeine. As such, GAT-1 could serve as a target for drugs designed to prevent withdrawal symptoms.

Using various lab techniques, Dr. Elena E. Bagley and colleagues, from the University of Sydney in Australia, showed that opioid withdrawal causes a small electrochemical current to form in nerve cells. Further analysis revealed that GAT-1 regulated this current.

The researchers’ findings appear in the scientific journal Neuron.

Blocking GAT-1 with certain drugs prevented the overstimulation of nerve cells that normally occurs during opioid withdrawal, the investigators report.

Anti-GAT-1 drugs are already being used to treat epilepsy, the authors note, and may prove useful opioid withdrawal as well.

SOURCE: Neuron, February 3, 2005.