Site for Alcohol’s Impact on the Brain Visualized

A new animal study suggests that alcohol affects the brain by binding with a specific location in the brain’s communication system, according to researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Researchers found an alcohol-binding location within the brain’s ion channel proteins, which play a vital role in sending messages between neurons and are thought to be involved in brain functions associated with drug abuse and seizures.

Researchers at Salk, who partnered with colleagues at their Structural Biology Laboratory in La Jolla, Calif., drew their conclusions from a study of a high-resolution, three-dimensional X-ray image of the brain’s ion channels.

The findings could help in the development of drugs that block alcohol’s effect on the brain in order to fight alcohol dependence, researchers said, as well as development of new strategies for treating epilepsy.

The study, led by Paul A. Slesinger, Ph.D., was published online on June 28, 2009 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.