Pharmacology: uncoupling the agony from ecstasy.
The recreational use of amphetamine-type stimulants can produce a marked and sometimes lethal increase in body temperature. Here we show that mice deficient in a mitochondrial protein known as UCP-3 (for 'uncoupling protein-3') have a diminished thermogenic response to the drug MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, nicknamed 'ecstasy') and so are protected against this dangerously toxic effect. Our findings indicate that UCP-3 is important in MDMA-induced hyperthermia and point to a new therapeutic direction for solving an increasing public-health problem.[1]References
- Pharmacology: uncoupling the agony from ecstasy. Mills, E.M., Banks, M.L., Sprague, J.E., Finkel, T. Nature (2003) [Pubmed]
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