Researchers from the Italian Institute of Technology and the University of California at Irvine have discovered the way that methamphetamine accelerates aging and have found a means to stop the process. The discovery was reported in the edition of the journal Public Library of Science. The researchers believe this discovery can prevent deaths from methamphetamine addiction.
Regular use of methamphetamine produces an older than normal appearance in the faces and bodies of abusers. The same accelerated aging is also seen at a cellular level and is most often seen in the muscles of the heart. Methamphetamine effectively uses the natural cell death process called apoptosis against the body.
Methamphetamine use increases the levels of a group of naturally occurring molecules that promote inflammation called ceramides. Ceramides can foster cell aging and death. The process recruits a natural protein called nuclear factor-kappa beta that normally helps encode DNA. The use of methamphetamine causes nuclear factor-kappa beta to induce the production of high levels of ceramides. The high levels of ceramides produce accelerated aging in all the cells of the body.
The researchers found several nuclear factor-kappa beta inhibitors that eliminated the excessive production of ceramides and limited the accelerated aging that comes with methamphetamine abuse. The study was done in mice but the nuclear factor-kappa beta inhibitors tested are already approved for use in humans. The researchers are working on a human trial for this technique. The idea is that if a person addicted to methamphetamine sees a physical change in their appearance they may have more desire to abstain from using the drug.
