Addiction

• Launched in April 2018, the initiative is focused on improving prevention and treatment strategies for opioid misuse and addiction, and enhancing pain management.
• The PSPP program, part of the NIH HEAL Initiative, evaluates non-opioid assets in a battery of established preclinical pain models.
• These observations were made with both male and female rats in two measures each, in models of post-incision pain and spinal nerve ligation-induced persistent neuropathic pain.
• These data trigger the advancement of KRM-II-81 within the NIH PSPP program where additional disease-specific pain models will be evaluated.

• With the countless studies available today on the effects of tobacco use, we should have no trouble convincing ourselves and others of how harmful it is.
• The cells that make up our tissues, organs and body systems are sensitive to the effects of external toxic agents, many of which can be found in tobacco.
• Many smokers not only accept this, but also ignore the serious danger it poses to the people around them.

Initial effects in the mouth and pharynx

• When tobacco smoke enters our body, the first cells to receive it are in the mouth, nose and throat.
• These effects on the immune system are also linked to a higher likelihood of developing cancer.
• We also cannot forget that tobacco smoke robs us of our sense of taste and smell, leaving an almost continuous bitter taste in the mouth.

Lung damage

• Furthermore, due to the direct damage caused by tobacco on the tissue that maintains the structure of the lungs, the bronchi and bronchioles become blocked, generating symptoms similar to suffocation.
• As if that were not enough, people with COPD are also more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, and lung cancer.

Black tar and macrophages

• We can cast our minds back to the previous image of my father’s pipe, black and sticky with tar.
• It so happens that the lungs are rich in macrophages – special cells that play a key role in our immune systems by reacting to attacks, producing inflammatory responses.
• These cells end up ingesting the tar from tobacco, and they eventually die loaded with this substance which builds up and gives a smoker’s lungs their characteristic blackened appearance.

Nicotine’s effects on neurons: dependence and addiction

• As with any other compound that stimulates neurotransmitter receptors, permanent stimulation desensitises neurons.
• This means that the neurons reduce the number of receptors, or change their sensitivity to the stimulant.
• This desensitisation process can lead not only to nicotine dependence, but also to other diseases such as memory loss.

Guillermo López Lluch is a member of the Spanish Society of Cell Biology, the Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology, the Society for Free Radical Research and the International Coenzyme Q10 Association. The research carried out by the author is financed by public funds from the Spanish Government or the Autonomous Government of Andalusia.

• ANAHEIM, CA, Feb. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire – BioCorRx Inc. (OTCQB: BICX) (the “Company”), a developer and provider of innovative treatment programs for substance abuse and related disorders, announced that its subsidiary BioCorRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., has appointed Kate Beebe DeVarney, Ph.D. to its Board of Directors.
• Dr. DeVarney is the President, Chief Operating Officer, and a Director of Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  She was previously Titan’s Chief Scientific Officer and has been with the company since 2007.
• Lourdes Felix, CEO, CFO, and Director of BioCorRx Inc., commented, “We are honored and excited to welcome Dr. DeVarney to the BioCorRx Pharmaceuticals board.
• I look forward to working closely with the management team to bring BICX104 to market.”

• Millions are affected by cocaine addiction worldwide, and the successful application of MEAI [5-Methoxy-2-aminoindane] could revolutionize treatment protocols and offer new hope to those trapped in the cycle of addiction.
• The trial was designed according to the self-administration paradigm, which is the gold-standard model for examining drug addiction and is based on operant conditioning.
• Animals previously conditioned with cocaine, received either cocaine (at 15mg/kg) or MEAI at doses of 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg.
• This research also demonstrated MEAI’s unique ability to treat cocaine addiction and its potential to become, if approved by regulatory agencies, the first dedicated cocaine addiction treatment.