Alcohol addiction ruins millions of lives every year, but scientists may have found a cure for this terrible affliction. A new treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been trialled in monkeys with impressive results and, if these translate to human trials, the impact could be monumental. A team of neuroscientists and physiologists from across the US tested a new type of gene therapy to see if they could directly target the underlying brain circuitry associated with sustained heavy drinking. As they noted, in the journal Nature Medicine, people suffering from AUD commonly return to alcohol use even if they attempt to quit. This is largely to do with what’s known as mesolimbic dopamine (DA) signalling – meaning how the central nervous system circuit communicates the feelgood neurotransmitter dopamine. A protein called glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is key to keeping these neurons in this reward circuitry functioning. However, experts have found that levels of GDNF are reduced in people with AUD during periods of alcohol abstinence, most notably in a region of the brain called the ventral tegmental area (VTA), as IFLScience notes. Therefore, the researchers decided to test whether using gene therapy to deliver more GDNF to the VTA could help reinforce this crucial dopaminergic signalling and prevent patients from suffering an alcoholic relapse. The team of scientists explained how alcohol consumption in non-addicts prompts the release of dopamine, creating a pleasurable buzz feeling, but chronic alcohol use causes the brain to adapt and stop releasing so much dopamine. “So when people are addicted to alcohol, they don’t really feel more pleasure in drinking,” Dr Kathleen Grant, a senior co-author of the study, said in a statement. “It seems that they’re drinking more because they feel a need to maintain an intoxicated state.” For their research, Dr Grant and her colleagues used eight rhesus macaque monkeys, who were exposed to increasing concentrations of alcohol over four 30-day “induction” periods. The monkeys then had free access to alcohol and water for 21 hours a day for six months, during which they developed heavy drinking behaviours. This was then followed by a 12-week abstinence phase, with the GDNF treatment performed four weeks in for half of the subjects. The gene therapy was delivered using a a viral vector containing a copy of the human GDNF gene injected directly into the primate’s VTA, according to IFLScience. And the results were truly jaw-dropping. “Drinking went down to almost zero,” Dr Grant said. “For months on end, these animals would choose to drink water and just avoid drinking alcohol altogether. They decreased their drinking to the point that it was so low we didn’t record a blood-alcohol level.” The most exciting aspect of their findings is the suggestion that gene therapy could offer a permanent solution for people with the most severe cases of AUD. This will be a welcome glimmer of hope to many, given that some 29.5 million people were diagnosed with AUD in the US alone in 2021, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Of these 29.5 million sufferers, almost a million (894,000) were aged between 12 and 17. It’ll likely be some time before we know for sure whether the gene therapy can be rolled out in humans, but it’s an important first step in tackling this devastating disorder. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 5, 2023--

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A new iPhone update brings the first look at one of the key features of Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro headset. iOS 17.2, which is available to developers in an early version now, and is likely to be released later this year for everyone, brings support for spatial video on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. That will allow people to make videos with depth, that can then be viewed later on the augmented reality headset. Those spatial photos and videos were a key part of Apple’s introduction of the Vision Pro earlier this year. Taking a video is done in much the same way as any other video: users choose spatial video, and will be told that they need to turn the video to be landscape, as well as given warnings about potential low light or being too close to the subject. They can then make the video as normal. The videos will also appear as normal on the iPhone itself. Users can watch them in their Photos app, but there is no preview of the three-dimensional aspect, which must be seen on the headset. Apple announced that spatial video would be available in the new iPhones when they were unveiled in September. Until that point, only the Vision Pro had been announced as a way of taking the videos – leading to fears and some mockery that people would have to be wearing the augmented reality headset during important moments they wanted to capture. The new features are in the second beta of iOS 17.2 to be released to developers. It is likely to come to the public in December. iOS 17.2 also brings the journal app, which was first announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June but did not arrive in the full version of iOS 17. It also adds new widgets, Apple Music features including collaborative playlists, more Memoji options and improvements to the security of iMessage. The iPhone 15 Pro also gets another exclusive feature in that update. When it arrives, it will add a new option for the action button on the side, to allow it to open up translate, in addition to the current options that include the camera and torch. Read More Setback for Ireland as EU legal adviser recommends revisit of Apple tax case Apple just released an iPhone update you should download right now Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak rushed to hospital in Mexico after ‘possible stroke’

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 10, 2023--

Alexa isn't the only one you can talk to through your Echo device. You can

DUBAI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 21, 2023--

Around half of the Twitter users who actively posted about climate and environmental issues have left the social media platform since Elon Musk took over, new research has found, raising concerns over the “troubling implications” of this mass exodus. The research, published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution on Tuesday, says that nearly half of Twitter users who identified as environmentally oriented had ceased being active on the platform. The authors of the study analysed the sample of 380,000 users who tweeted about climate and environment at least once in 15 days. The study found that within six months of take over by Mr Musk, around 47.5 per cent of these users became inactive. For comparison, the researchers also looked at a control group of 458,000 users who tweeted about US politics, and found that only 21 per cent of these users became inactive in the same period. The research took place between December 2022 and May 2023 and was led by Charlotte Chang, assistant professor of biology and environmental analysis at Pomona College. Researchers say this mass exodus shows the changes in Twitter’s ownership and how the platform is run has real-world impact. “Twitter has been the dominant social media platform for diverse environmental interests to communicate and organise around advocacy goals, exchange ideas and research and new opportunities for collaboration,” the authors wrote. “Currently there is nothing on the horizon to replace it, putting at risk robust idea-sharing on topics such as extreme weather disaster responses, preservation of biodiversity and climate change.” The social media giant, now called “X”, has gone through a series of shake-ups and changes since the Tesla founder bought the platform in October 2022. However, the platform has long stood as a vital source for real-time information and public mobilisation. Recent findings suggest that hate speech has increased substantially after the Twitter sale and that engagement increased much more markedly for contentious right-wing actors, the study notes. Researchers say changes since Twitter’s acquisition likely have ripple effects for other user segments as well, such as the climate policy sphere, or future disaster response after extreme weather events. Read More Google is profiting from climate misinformation on YouTube, report finds ‘Propaganda to infect children’s minds’: Climate misinformation textbook mailed to 8,000 US science teachers Fossil fuel lobby waged $4m disinformation campaign during climate summit, report finds

Fans watching Valorant Masters Tokyo 2023 can claim free Twitch drops, including a Title Card and Player Card, by linking their Riot Games account with their Twitch account.

Prior to this, Adin Ross engaged in friendly sparring sessions with Ryan Garcia, Dillon Danis, and fellow streamer N3on