Background: One of the challenges in early-stage clinical research aimed at developing novel treatments for alcohol use disorder (AUD) is that the enrolled participants are heavy drinkers, but do not seek treatment for AUD.
Aims: To compare nontreatment seekers with alcohol dependence (AD) from 4 human laboratory studies conducted at Brown University (N = 240; 65.4% male) to treatment seekers with AD from the multisite COMBINE study (N = 1,383; 69.
Increasing evidence supports the role of appetite-regulating hormones, including ghrelin, in alcohol use disorder (AUD). Effects of ghrelin administration on cortisol and aldosterone, two hormones known to influence the development and maintenance of AUD, have been observed in ghrelin-exposed tissues or cells, as well as rodents and healthy volunteers, however whether these effects replicate in individuals with AUD is unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis that intravenous administration of ghrelin leads to increase in endogenous serum cortisol and aldosterone concentrations in alcohol-dependent, heavy drinking individuals, and that these changes may predict ghrelin-induced alcohol craving.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreclinical work suggests that GET 73 (N-[4-(trifluoromethyl)benzyl]-4-methoxybutyramide), a novel metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 negative allosteric modulator, may represent a novel pharmacological treatment for alcohol use disorder. Two independent experiments evaluated the effect of acutely administered GET 73 (0, 30, and 100 mg/kg, intragastrically) on alcohol-induced hypolocomotion ( n=72) and sedation/hypnosis ( n=36) in rats. In healthy male volunteers ( n=14), an open-label, randomised, crossover study was conducted to compare adverse events and pharmacokinetic parameters, in two experiments in which 300 mg GET 73 was administered, with and without alcohol, once and thrice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe data in this article outline the methods used for the administration of GET 73 in the first time-in-human manuscript entitled "Phase I randomized clinical trial for the safety, tolerability and preliminary pharmacokinetics of the mGluR5 negative allosteric modulator GET 73 following single and repeated doses in healthy male volunteers" (Haass-Koffler et al., 2017) [1]. Data sets are provided in two different manners.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreclinical work suggests that the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGlu5) may represent a novel target to treat neuropsychiatric disorders, including alcohol use disorder and obesity. The goal of this first-in-man study was to evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics (PK) of GET 73 (PubChem SID: 329974174), a novel mGluR5 negative allosteric modulator. This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, ascending dose, Phase I study conducted in healthy male volunteers in two experiments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Preclinical and clinical research suggest that the α receptor antagonist prazosin reduces alcohol consumption. Furthermore, clinical studies indicate a role for prazosin in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms and a recent trial suggested that pre-treatment blood pressure (BP) predicts therapeutic response for prazosin in PTSD patients. Whether pre-treatment BP may predict response to α blockers in alcohol-dependent (AD) patients is unknown.
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