Neuropeptide Promotes Drug-Seeking and Craving in Rats
Orexin, a neuropeptide that stimulates eating and regulates wakefulness, also fosters animals' drug seeking and craving responses to drugs, according to two NIDA-funded studies. The research teams, led by Drs. Glenda Harris and Gary Aston-Jones at the University of Pennsylvania and Drs. Stephanie Borgland and Antonello Bonci at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), used different experimental procedures and studied different drugs. Their findings, however, point to the same conclusion: Augmenting orexin increases drug seeking, while blocking it has the opposite effect. Orexin