Scientists have discovered a gene which makes a protein with an essential role in enjoying sensual delights such as good food or sex; but also an essential role in drug addiction.
It works by reacting to Endorphins, your brain's own natural opiates to provide a response of pleasurable feelings, almost a reward, for the is fulfillment of a desire. But, by exactly the same mechanism it also re-enforces the addiction to opiate drugs.
Picking on rodents, as usual, Prof Hunt's team found that specially-bred mice (with out this gene) could be injected with morphine and not show an euphoric response. Conversely, when denied the drug, they showed reduced withdrawal symptoms. From the report: "Normally opiates in the brain are used, for example, to register pleasure from activities such as eating food and sex. Heroin and morphine hijack this system to produce a euphoric high, but are also very powerful pain relieving drugs.
By knocking out this gene we have been able to seperate these two effects."
The results are intended to show that pain can possibly be treated with higher doses of morphine without fear of addiction. I wonder has anyone considered the effects of enhancing the actions of this gene??.