Good news, but progess on this subject is slow!
"The drugs that keep rheumatoid arthritis in check may one day help people stop drinking. A new ... study shows that an anti-inflammatory molecule, already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat autoimmune diseases, reduces excessive alcohol consumption in alcohol-dependent female mice. ..."
From the abstract:
"Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders worldwide yet effective therapeutics remain limited.
Mounting evidence indicates that dysregulated immune signaling in the brain plays a role in AUD pathophysiology. Activation of pro-inflammatory pathways like the interleukin-6 (IL-6) pathway represents a potential point of convergence between synaptic dysfunction and motivational changes in AUD that remain undiscovered.
Thus, using a translational neuroscience approach and well-established model of chronic alcohol intake, we investigated the cell-type specific role of IL-6 signaling in the central amygdala, a critical region in the development and maintenance of alcohol dependence.
We demonstrate that chronic alcohol exposure recruits IL-6-related pathways in humans and rodents via astrocytic, neuronal, and microglial mechanisms, and that IL-6 inhibits central amygdala GABAergic transmission.
Notably, systemic administration of an IL-6 receptor antibody decreased alcohol drinking in alcohol-dependent female mice.
Collectively, our findings support IL-6 inhibition as a novel-neuroimmune-targeted therapeutic strategy to reduce excessive drinking in the context of AUD."
Translational evidence for increased central amygdala IL-6 activity in alcohol dependence (open access)
Fig 1 IL-6 signaling pathway and overall experimental timeline.
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