Study on the mechanism of addiction formation for highly palatable foods: Focusing on differences from addictive drugs

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K20902
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0902:General internal medicine and related fields
• Research Institution: Kurume University
• Principal Investigator: Nakamura Yuki 久留米大学, 医学部, 助教 (90446104)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-08-31 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: ドーパミン / 線条体 / 嗜癖

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Addiction to highly palatable foods is thought to have the same mechanism as drug addiction, but the details of the similarities and differences between the two remain unclear.We analyzed long-term gene expression changes in each neuron (D1 neuron, D2 neuron) of the striatum of mice that developed high sucrose food addiction and mice that were repeatedly administered cocaine, and compared the two. As a result, we identified several genes whose expression was long-lasting changed in striatal D2 neurons only in high-sucrose food addiction mice. It indicates that the identified genes play an important role only in the formation of addiction to highly palatable food,but not drugs.

Free Research Field

神経薬理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

同定した遺伝子の、高嗜好性食品への嗜癖形成における役割を解析することで、高嗜好性食品への嗜癖と薬物依存との違いを明らかにできる。さらにこれらの遺伝子をターゲットとした薬物の開発を検討することで、高嗜好性食品への嗜癖形成を阻害する肥満予防薬の開発へとつながることが期待される。