Stephen L. Dewey, Ph.D., of the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, points to a chart that describes brain activity on and off cocaine, at a news conference Wednesday, Aug. 5, 1998, in New York. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Human testing expected on anti-addiction drug

Web posted August 6, 1998

By Verena Dobnik
Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Human testing is expected to begin this fall on a drug that appears to block cocaine addiction in laboratory animals and might have promise for use against other addictions.

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory held a news conference today to describe their tests of the ability of gamma vinyl-GABA, or GVG, to curb cocaine cravings in rodents and monkeys.

The drug could be an improvement over methadone, the most commonly used antidote to cocaine addiction in three decades, said Dr. Jonathan Brodie, a New York University psychiatry professor who collaborated on the research.

While methadone is itself addictive, the new drug is not. ``This is like if you craved candy and you went to a candy store to get it, only now the cupboards are bare -- so you stop going to the candy store,'' Brodie said.

The scientists said they believe the drug has the potential to also curb addiction to substances such as nicotine, heroin and amphetamines.

``If this can do for humans what it did for animals, we may have opened the door for addicts around the world to kick their habit,'' said Stephen Dewey, a brain-science expert at Brookhaven and lead author of the report.

The drug, now used for treatment of epilepsy in Europe and Canada, is marketed by Hoechst Marion Roussel, a unit of Hoechst AG in Germany.

Brookhaven researchers became interested in it because it reduces the level of a brain chemical called dopamine, which causes the ``high'' feelings from drugs.

Cocaine appears to increase dopamine production. But lab animals given GVG in addition to cocaine retained normal levels of dopamine.

Tests on human volunteers would begin as soon as the Food and Drug Administration approves the GVG for use in the United States. Final FDA approval is expected in October, according to Brookhaven.

Results of the Brookhaven work, sponsored by the Department of Energy's research department and the National Institute of Mental Health, were released today by the journal Synapse.