Department of Biological Sciences, JP Scott Center for Neuroscience, Mind and Behavior, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences, JP Scott Center for Neuroscience, Mind and Behavior, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA,
Brain Behav Evol. 2020;95(5):222-229. doi: 10.1159/000514180. Epub 2021 Feb 10.
Addiction is a debilitating condition that extracts enormous social and economic tolls. Despite several decades of research, our knowledge of its etiology, preventive measures, and treatments is limited. A relatively recent research field with the potential to provide a more holistic understanding, and subsequently treatments, takes a phylogenetic view of addiction. This perspective is based on deep homologies at the genetic, proteomic, and behavioral levels, which are shared across all metazoan life; particularly those organisms faced with plant secondary metabolites as defensive compounds against insect herbivory. These addictive alkaloids, such as nicotine, cocaine, or cathinone, are commonly referred to as "human drugs of abuse" even though humans had little to no role in the co-evolutionary processes that determined their initial emergence or continued selection. This commentary discusses the overwhelming homologies of addictive alkaloid effects on neural systems across a wide range of taxa, as we aim to develop a broader comparative view of the "addicted brain." Taking nicotine as an example, homologous physiological responses to this compound identify common underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms that advocate for the adoption of a phylogenetic view of addiction.
成瘾是一种使人衰弱的疾病，会给社会和经济带来巨大的损失。尽管已经进行了几十年的研究，但我们对其病因、预防措施和治疗方法的了解仍然有限。一个相对较新的研究领域，有可能提供更全面的理解，并随后提供治疗方法，从进化的角度来看待成瘾。这种观点基于遗传、蛋白质组和行为层面的深刻同源性，这些同源性在所有后生动物生命中都有共享；特别是那些面临植物次生代谢物作为防御化合物来抵御昆虫取食的生物体。这些成瘾性生物碱，如尼古丁、可卡因或卡他碱，通常被称为“人类滥用药物”，尽管在决定它们最初出现或持续选择的共同进化过程中，人类几乎没有作用。这篇评论讨论了成瘾性生物碱对神经系统的影响在广泛的分类群中具有压倒性的同源性，因为我们旨在对“成瘾大脑”形成更广泛的比较观点。以尼古丁为例，对这种化合物的同源生理反应确定了共同的潜在细胞和分子机制，支持采用进化的角度来看待成瘾。
