title: Effect of rapamycin on cue-induced drug craving in abstinent heroin addicts.
abstract: The mammalian target of rapamycin is an evolutionarily conserved serine-threonine kinase (mTOR), which controls protein synthesis and catabolism in response to environmental cues. This randomized double-blind clinical trial enrolled 60 abstinent heroin addicts and randomly assigned them to three groups: placebo, 2.5 mg and 5 mg rapamycin. The participants were given the cue-reactivity paradigm with 5 min exposures to neutral and drug-related imagery while craving, anxiety, blood pressure and heart rate pre- and post-exposure were assessed. We found that drug-related cues increased both craving and anxiety of abstinent heroin addicts, and had no effect on blood pressure and heart rate. A single high-dose of rapamycin significantly reduced the craving, but not anxiety induced by drug-related cues. Our findings suggested that rapamycin merits outpatient clinical trials as a potential pharmacotherapy for relapse prevention from drug-related cue induced craving.
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Drug Dependence, Peking University, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Wang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jun
authors.forename: Li-Yan
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Yan-Xue
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Xiang-Yang
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Kosten
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D003463:Cues; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D020123:Sirolimus / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D020123:Sirolimus