by 
Feelings of happiness are triggered through the neurotransmitter?dopamine within the brain. A number of the common triggers for dopamine release are food, sex and medicines. Once the brain gets to be a dose of dopamine, it is not content with a onetime burst of joy but rather remembers the feeling and works to achieve it again and again. Dopamine enables us to keep in mind how to make decisions that when again give us that happiness kick.
Researchers working at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) in Basel, Switzerland recently discovered a new therapy using the dopamine system. The work, headed by ETH-Zurich professor?Martin Fussenegger, lead to the development of a brand new genetic module which can be controlled by dopamine. The module is activated through the feel-good molecule but relies upon the dosage. When there is a rise of dopamine in the bloodstream, the module responds by producing the active agent.
This specific module consists of different biological parts interconnecting together to make a synthetic signaling cascade. In the beginning from the cascade, dopamine receptors are found and function as sensors. The finish method is one of two proteins referred to as SEAP or ANP, that are vasodilators that lower blood pressure. Researchers inserted these signal cascades into human cells and approximately 100,000 were put into capsules. These special capsules were then implanted into mice abdomens.
After injection from the capsules, the mice were subjected to situations for example full sexual confidence, triggered by a female mouse in males, the drug methamphetamine, or golden syrup; which were designed to correspond using the central reward system that creates dopamine. When the mouse brain responded by developing a “state of happiness,” dopamine was formed and released in to the blood by the peripheral nervous system.
Some mice were given varying concentrations of golden syrup so that the happiness level varied. Once the sugar was more diluted, less dopamine was produced which caused a smaller amount of the active agent to flow in the blood. Based on Fussenegger, “This implies that dopamine doesn’t merely switch our module on and off, but additionally that it responds based on the power of the benefits hormone.”
The researchers also designed a dopamine sensor module to create the antihypertensive agent ANP and placed it in the abdomens of hypertensive male mice. When the male mice came in connection with a female mouse, enough dopamine was released to trigger ANP production that entirely corrected the?hypertension as well as caused hypertension to normalize.
The outcomes of this research demonstrated that dopamine is not only released in the brain in reaction to feel-good situations but additionally within the nerves from the sympathetic central nervous system, also referred to as the?vegetative system. The brain is attached to the remaining body with the sympathetic central nervous system, even though the dopamine it produces cannot directly enter the blood because of the blood brain barrier. Combined with the brain, dopamine receptors have been discovered within the kidneys, adrenalin glands and on blood vessels themselves.
Dopamine circulating in the blood serum regulates breathing and blood sugar levels balance. Because of this it has long been thought that brain activity and blood serum dopamine were connected. The research done by the ETH-Zurich researchers has demonstrated this connection, enabling a deeper knowledge of the body’s reward system.
Fussenegger explained that eating, for example, could be used as therapeutic input due to this new module. “Using the gene network, we connect using the normal reward system,” he said. Since delicious food triggers feelings of happiness that activate the module, intervention is created inside a procedure that usually is controlled solely by the subconscious. Because of this, daily activities could start to be utilized for therapeutic interventions.
For now, the dopamine hypertension model is only a prototype. However, the work indicates that it’s possible to intervene in the body’s reward system. “It works inside a mouse model that simulates a human disease and also the components we accustomed to make the module also originated from humans.”
It is remains unclear whether laser hair removal will end up open to the general public, as it may take years or even decades to build up the prototype right into a marketable product.
