A ‘factory reset’ for the brain cures anxiety, drinking behaviour

A ‘factory reset’ for the brain cures anxiety, drinking behaviour
According to the results of an animal study published in the journal Science Advances, gene editing may be a potential treatment for anxiety and alcohol use disorder in adults who were exposed to binge drinking in their adolescence.
The study is issued by researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago who have been studying the effects of early life binge drinking on health later in life.
In prior research, the UIC team found that binge drinking in adolescence alters brain chemistry at the enhancer region of the Arc gene. This epigenetic reprogramming of the Arc gene in the brain’s emotion and memory center contributes to a predisposition to anxiety and alcohol use disorder in adulthood.
In their study, the researchers show that this epigenetic reprogramming, which persists throughout life, actually can be reversed with gene editing.
Source: Targeted epigenomic editing ameliorates adult anxiety and excessive drinking after adolescent alcohol exposure. John Peyton Bohnsack, Huaibo Zhang, Gabriela Wandling, Donghong He, Evan Kyzar and Amy Lasek, all of UIC. Science Advances ,8,18,2022
science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq5934