Normal glutathione levels in autopsied brain of chronic users of heroin and of cocaine

It is generally assumed that chronic exposure of some recreational drugs of abuse (e.g., stimulants, heroin) likely “injuries” the human brain to some extent and that neurotoxic injury might be caused at least in part by oxidative stress (Sharma et al., 2007; Cunha-Oliveira et al., 2008; Yamamoto et al., 2010; Sajja et al., 2016). To date, evidence supporting this possibility is largely driven by results of e xperimental animal investigations. For example, animal (rodent) studies show that high doses of the dopaminergic stimulant methamphetamine can produce increased brain levels of malondialdehyde or malondialdehyde-like lipoperoxidation substances, cause structural damage to (at least) brain dopamine n erve endings, and with reduction of the dopamine neuronal markers lessened by antioxidant treatment (for review see Kish, 2014).
Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: Full length article Source Type: research