{"id":153608,"date":"2025-06-03T02:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T02:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/153608\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T02:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T02:00:09","slug":"researchers-genetically-altered-fruit-flies-to-crave-cocaine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/153608\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers genetically altered fruit flies to crave cocaine"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In a world first, scientists at the University of Utah have engineered fruit flies<\/a> susceptible to cocaine addiction<\/a>. But as strange as it sounds, there are potentially life-saving reasons for genetically altering the insects to crave the drug. The novel biological model could help addiction treatment therapies development and expedite research timelines. The findings are detailed in the Journal of Neuroscience<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As surprising as it may sound, humans have a lot in common with fruit flies<\/a>. In fact, we share around 70\u201375 percent<\/a> of the same genes responsible for various diseases, as well as many of the same vital organs. Researchers have relied on the insects for genetic studies<\/a> for years, especially for investigating the biological roots of certain addictions like cocaine<\/a> abuse. This is due in large part to the fruit fly\u2019s quick life cycle and its comparatively simple genetic makeup. But while scientists have administered the drug<\/a> to the bugs in the past, there\u2019s always been a small problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlies don\u2019t like cocaine one bit,\u201d Adrian Rothenfluh, the study\u2019s senior author and an associate professor of psychiatry, said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even when previously introduced to cocaine, Rothenfluh\u2019s team noted that the insects routinely opted for pure sugar water over sugar water laced with cocaine. Study first author Travis Philyaw theorized the reason may reside in a fly\u2019s sense of taste that is found on their legs.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsects are evolutionarily primed to avoid plant toxins, and cocaine is a plant toxin,\u201d Philyaw explained. \u201cThey have taste receptors on their \u2018arms\u2019\u2014their tarsal segments\u2014so they can put their hand in something before it goes in their mouth, and decide, \u2018I\u2019m not going to touch that.’\u201d<\/p>\n

After confirming that cocaine activates a fruit fly\u2019s bitter-sensing taste receptors, Rothenfluh and Philyaw switched off those nerves. Once deactivated, there was little to stop the flies from developing a cocaine habit. These modified flies were subsequently introduced to sugar water infused with a low concentration of cocaine. Within 16 hours, the insects indicated a preference for the drug-laced drink.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt low doses, they start running around, just like people,\u201d said Rothenfluh. \u201cAt very high doses, they get incapacitated, which is also true in people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that researchers know how to breed the modified fruit flies, they can more easily study how cocaine addiction evolves in the body. Not only that, but they can do so on a much faster timeline by analyzing hundreds of genes at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can scale research so quickly in flies,\u201d said Philyaw. \u201cWe can identify risk genes that might be difficult to uncover in more complex organisms, and then we pass that information to researchers who work with mammalian models.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, scientists can identify treatment targets that help link to human therapy options.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can really start to understand the mechanisms of cocaine choice, and the more you understand about the mechanism, the more you have a chance to find a therapeutic that might act on that mechanism,\u201d explained Rothenfluh.<\/p>\n

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Andrew Paul is Popular Science\u2019s staff writer covering tech news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the Popular Science daily newsletter\ud83d\udca1 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. In a world first,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[535,267,12,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-153608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-drugs","9":"tag-genetics","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114616967316301821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}