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Neuropharmacology

Cheap date

Nature volume 396, pages 313–314 (1998)Cite this article

Ever felt that you wanted to change your personality? Well, it may be possible. At last we are getting a handle on many aspects of behaviour — and it's all to do with neuropeptides. On page 366 of this issue, Thiele et al.1 report that the desire to drink alcohol may be inversely related to levels of neuropeptide Y (NPY) in the brain. Thus, a subtle change in brain neuropeptides may dictate a behavioural characteristic.

In humans, sensitivity to ethanol may be genetically influenced2,3. One study has shown that young men with a family history of alcoholism are less susceptible to ethanol than controls, measured subjectively and by looking at body sway, hormonal perturbations and ethanol-related changes in two electrophysiological measures2. In a follow-up study a decade later, people with lower sensitivity to alcohol were more likely to be alcoholics3. Ethanol sensitivity in rodent models is also influenced genetically, and strains of mice and rats that differ in their susceptibility to an acute dose of ethanol have been obtained through selective breeding4. Knockout mice have allowed researchers to study these genes further. Mice lacking the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT1B) receptor5, the gamma isoform of protein kinase C6 or the Fyn tyrosine kinase7 have altered responses to ethanol, suggesting that specific genes modulate ethanol-induced behaviour in animals.

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  1. the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, W12 ONN, London, UK

    Caroline J. Small & Stephen R. Bloom

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  1. Caroline J. Small
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  2. Stephen R. Bloom
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Small, C., Bloom, S. Cheap date. Nature 396, 313–314 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/24495

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