Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researchers have found a drug that could help our brains overcome the effects of heavy alcohol consumption and reverse the damaging effects on the regeneration of brain cells. The work was recently published in Scientific Reports.
In this study, the researchers treated mice with a daily treatment of the tandospirone, a drug that acts selectively on a serotonin receptor (5-HT1A), and found that it reversed the effects of 15 weeks of binge-like alcohol consumption on neurogenesis. The researchers also found that the drug was able to stop anxiety-like behaviors associated with alcohol withdrawal.
"This is a novel discovery that tandospirone can reverse the deficit in neurogenesis caused by alcohol. Other studies in mice have shown that tandospirone improves brain neurogenesis, but this is the first time it has been shown that it can totally reverse the neurogenic deficits induced by alcohol. This opens the way to look at if neurogenesis is associated with other substance-abuse deficits, such as in memory and learning, and whether this compound can reverse these," said study leader Selena Bartlett.