PUBLISHED DATA SHOWS ELI LILLY DRUG STOPS EXCESSIVE DRINKING

Animal study data stemming from a collaborative project between the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and Eli Lilly shows that a newly discovered compound effectively stops excessive drinking and prevents relapse.

The compound, known as MTIP, also muted the anxiety that typically develops in rats experiencing the equivalent of a hangover. Such stress is linked with higher levels of a brain chemical called corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), which is also thought to trigger relapse in rats that have developed a long-term dependency on alcohol. The research appears in the March 7 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

The findings build on previous work showing the effectiveness of blocking certain CRF receptors -- proteins that bind CRF and make it active -- in treating alcohol dependence in animals. CRF levels in the brain rise in the short term after drinking. In subjects that are not dependent, this activation returns to normal within a day or so. The new study shows that the CRF system becomes overactive in the long term in animals with a history of alcohol dependence, increasing the risk for relapse.

MTIP blocked the activity of CRF in stressful situations without affecting its activity under ordinary circumstances. Researchers studied rats that had been put through several cycles of heavy alcohol consumption and withdrawal to create dependency, as well as animals selectively bred to consume more alcohol. Injections of MTIP prevented excessive drinking of alcohol in both cases and eliminated the rats' susceptibility to relapse under stress. Yet the compound did not affect their native curiosity or lower levels of drinking alcohol in rats that were not alcohol-dependent.