The discovery that the enzyme PRDM2 is switched off in the frontal lobe nerve cells of people who become dependent on alcohol was made by Professor Markus Heilig’s Linköping team alongside researchers from Miami University. This is the first time that scientists have managed to pinpoint the biological mechanisms underpinning impaired impulse control in alcoholics. When too little enzyme is produced, no effective signals are sent from the cells that are supposed to stop the impulse,” said Heilig. To check this finding the researchers then cut off the production of the enzyme in rats that were not dependent, before observing the same lack of impulse control. The findings of the Linköping and Miami teams are published in Molecular Psychiatry, the world’s top-ranked psychiatry journal.

Source: The Local August 30, 2016 14:15 UTC