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Naltrexone reverses ethanol preference and protein kinase C activation in Drosophila melanogaster
Koyyada, Rajeswari Latchooman, Nilesh Jonaitis, Julius Ayoub, Samir S. Corcoran, Olivia Casalotti, Stefano O
Koyyada, Rajeswari
Latchooman, Nilesh
Jonaitis, Julius
Ayoub, Samir S.
Corcoran, Olivia
Casalotti, Stefano O
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2018-03-14
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Abstract
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a major health, social and economic problem for which there are few effective treatments. The opiate antagonist naltrexone is currently prescribed clinically with mixed success. We have used naltrexone in an established behavioral assay (CAFE) in Drosophila melanogaster that measures the flies' preference for ethanol-containing food. We have confirmed that Drosophila exposed to ethanol develop a preference toward this drug and we demonstrate that naltrexone, in a dose dependant manner, reverses the ethanol-induced ethanol preference. This effect is not permanent, as preference for alcohol returns after discontinuing naltrexone. Additionally, naltrexone reduced the alcohol-induced increase in protein kinase C activity. These findings are of interest because they confirm that Drosophila is a useful model for studying human responses to addictive drugs. Additionally because of the lack of a closely conserved opiate system in insects, our results could either indicate that a functionally related system does exist in insects or that in insects, and potentially also in mammals, naltrexone binds to alternative sites. Identifying such sites could lead to improved treatment strategies for AUD.
Citation
Koyyada, R., Latchooman, N., Jonaitis, J., Ayoub, S.S., Corcoran, O. and Casalotti, S.O. (2018) Naltrexone Reverses Ethanol Preference and Protein Kinase C Activation in Drosophila melanogaster. Frontiers in Physiology, 9:175. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2018.00175
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PubMed ID
29593550 (pubmed)
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Journal article
Language
en
Description
© 2018 The Authors. Published by Frontiers Media. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2018.00175
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ISSN
1664-042X
EISSN
1664-042X
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This project was funded by the University of East London via a start-up grant to SC.
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Licence for published version: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International