Studies lead to help for cocaine poisoning

17 Jun 2002

Laser-pulse technique shows fleeting, electrochemical changes on nerve-cell surfaces

A new laser-based process to study the regulation of signal transmission between cells of the nervous system has led to the discovery of compounds that could provide the basis for a treatment for cocaine poisoning.

The discovery was made using laser-pulse photolysis, a technique which is under development in the laboratory of George Hess, professor of biochemistry at Cornell University, US. Laser-pulse photolysis has a unique ability to characterize reactions during the milliseconds that they occur on the surface of nerve cells. "Laser-pulse photolysis lets us look at an ensemble of molecules - not just a single channel or a single molecule - during the split-second reactions that relay electrical signals through the nervous system," said Hess.

Using the technique, Hess and colleagues identified compounds involving RNA (ribonucleic acid) that prevent cocaine from blocking proteins that are essential to the normal function of the nervous system. In the last two decades, many unsuccessful attempts have been made to find such proteins, but a major difficulty in investigating them is that they remain in their active form for just a few milliseconds. The Cornell technique allows scientists to examine the electrochemical activity of the proteins in this critical time period.

The identification of the RNA compounds, Hess says, will enable the design of other smaller and more stable compounds for treating cocaine poisoning. Laser-pulse photolysis could have other uses, such as illuminating nerve-cell reactions in diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson's.