AUTHOR=Kong Qingyao , Wu Xiaoyang , Xu Ming 

TITLE=A Genetically Modified Skin Graft for Treating Alcohol Use Disorder and/or Polysubstance Abuse With Cocaine

JOURNAL=Advances in Drug and Alcohol Research

VOLUME=1

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontierspartnerships.org/journals/advances-in-drug-and-alcohol-research/articles/10.3389/adar.2021.10007

DOI=10.3389/adar.2021.10007

ISSN=2674-0001

ABSTRACT=<p>Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the foremost public health problems. Alcohol is also frequently co-abused with cocaine. There is a huge unmet need for the treatment of AUD and/or cocaine co-abuse. We have developed and used a skin stem cell-based gene delivery platform and found that production of the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP1) from the grafted genetically modified skin reduced development and reinstatement of alcohol-induced drug-taking and seeking, voluntary oral alcohol consumption and alcohol-induced increase in dopamine (DA) levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Moreover, we have developed a novel co-grafting procedure for both modified human butyrylcholinesterase (hBChE)- and GLP1-expressing cells. Skin grafts-derived hBChE and GLP1 reduced acquisition of drug-taking and toxicity induced by concurrent alcohol and cocaine injections. These results imply that gene delivery through skin transplants may add a new option to treat drug abuse and co-abuse.</p>