It has long been known that alcohol abuse can damage the brain, according to an online edition for girls and women between 14 and 35 years old Pannochka. net But for the first time researchers from the University of the Basque Country in Spain, together with colleagues from the University of Nottingham (University of Nottingham) in England, could at a molecular level explain the changes occurring in the brain under the influence of alcohol.

In the United States, approximately 17,000,000 people abuse alcohol.

Previous studies have demonstrated that excessive consumption of alcohol can cause problems with cognitive functions, such as learning and remembering, as well as with motor skills.

According to the international team of scientists, such disorders among alcoholics are associated with regional atrophic changes in the brain - the loss of nerve cells in certain areas. But they note that to date, exact molecular mechanisms have remained incomprehensible.

To eliminate this white spot in science, the researchers analyzed 20 brain samples of deceased people who suffered from alcohol dependence. For comparison, 20 brain samples of healthy people were taken. The researchers analyzed the prefrontal cortex of the brain - a zone that is responsible for the regulation of behavior, abstract thinking and analysis of thoughts.

Alterations of proteins cause dementia in alcoholics.

The results of the study, published recently in the journal PLOS One, revealed that in the prefrontal cortex of alcoholics, there are abnormalities in the structure of proteins of alpha and beta tubulin and beta-2-spectrin. Scientists explain that tubulins constitute a cytoskeletal structure - the architecture of nerve cells of the brain. Spectra are responsible for the correct form of nerve cells.

Researchers say that such changes in the neuronal structure can affect the organization of the entire cerebral cortex and its work: "Based on this data, we assume that the deterioration of cytoskeletal architecture provides the best explanation for the huge differences that occur in the prefrontal cortex of alcoholics and healthy subjects ".

According to scientists, these results open up great opportunities for further research in the field of alcoholism and its impact on the central nervous system. In particular, today the team is going to determine exactly how alcohol leads to structural disorders in enzymes that are responsible for the correct construction of alpha and beta tubulin, as well as beta-2-spectrin.

They also intend to go as far as studying other specific changes in the brain that occur under the influence of alcohol.

If scientists get all the information they want, then soon it can lead to the creation of new drugs that can reverse alcohol-associated changes in the brain. This will help improve the quality of life of patients with alcohol dependence, and also reduce the number of deaths associated with it.

Last year, the medical journal Cortex reported that scientists discovered long-term irreversible changes in the brain under the influence of alcohol, which do not pass even many years after the recovery from alcoholism.

And more recently, researchers from the University of Utah (University of Utah) in the United States said that the region of the diencephalon called the habenula (responsible) is responsible for how much a person is sensitive to the negative effects of alcohol. In experiments on rats, scientists have proved that inactivation of the leash allows rodents to consume much more alcohol.

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