BELIEVE IN SCIENCE –
March 15, 2022 – Mice forced to drink water laced with cocaine and alcohol were found to ignore their spiked options in favor of plain water after receiving a skin graft of altered human cells.
“The relapse rate is extremely high in the untreated mouse population, where it’s extremely low in the treated population because they have less of the craving,” Ryan Meyers, an MBA candidate at the University of Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune. “They’re not necessarily going to actually look for it.” In humans, a small piece of harvested skin would be grown to the size of two credit cards, then transplanted back onto their body. The graft would rewrite how their bodies respond to those substances.
Wu told the Chicago Tribune that he and Xu are seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration to try their hand at human skin. From there, it could take five years or more for the treatment to reach the public. The researchers also hope such a procedure could later be used to treat other diseases and disorders.
