Dangerous Cocaine Effects
A new study, from Johns Hopkins University recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that high doses of cocaine causes brain cells to kill themselves in mice. The researchers found that cocaine can kill brain cells by triggering “overactive autophagy,” which can be defined as the process by which cells digest their own insides. Further, this process was seen in the brains of mice whose mothers were given cocaine while pregnant.
The study looked at nerve cells in the brains of mice and saw that the cells of the mice that had been exposed to cocaine literally “committed suicide” in different ways that are known that are chemically programmed into the cell. This process of autophagy happens in healthy cells as a method of cleaning up – getting rid of debris within the membrane contained bags within the cell. When these membrane filled bags join with other bags that are filled with the acid from cocaine, the contents of the bags are destroyed. While this autophagic process doesn’t normally cause cell death, when it occurs frequently and accelerates, the cell ends up eating itself.
Although the findings were frightening, positive findings were prevalent as well due to the fact that researchers feel that in the future they can develop drugs that can prevent autophagy and save the cells before the cocaine causes them to kill themselves.