managed for the U.S. Department of Energy

by Brookhaven Science Associates, a company

founded by Stony Brook University and Battelle

P.O. Box 5000

Upton, NY 11973-5000

www.bnl.gov

A View of BrookhavenBrookhaven National Laboratory is a multipurposeresearch laboratory funded by the U.S. Departmentof Energy. Located on a 5,300-acre site on Long Island,New York, the Laboratory operates large-scale facilitiesfor studies in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine,applied science, and advanced technology.Brookhaven’s 3,000 scientists, engineers, and supportstaff are joined each year by more than 4,000 visitingresearchers from around the world.

Addiction Research at BrookhavenIn 1987, Brookhaven National Laboratory becamethe first research institution to use positron emissiontomography (PET) and other medical imagingtechniques to investigate the brain mechanismsunderlying drug addiction.Since then, Brookhaven researchers and theircollaborators and colleagues at other institutionshave probed the mysteries of how drugs such ascocaine affect the brain and how they lead a personinto the cycle of use and abuse that is addiction.The Brookhaven PET program has gained international recognition for images of human addiction, forintroducing novel addiction treatments, for studyingbrain aging and degeneration, and for drug researchand development.As a result of their outstanding research, severalBrookhaven researchers have been recognized withhonors and awards. The Laboratory itself has beennamed a regional drug addiction study center by theNational Institute on Drug Abuse.Among the drugs being studied at Brookhaven are:

• cocaine and related drugs • heroin and opiates

• amphetamine and methamphetamine • tobacco

• alcohol • marijuana • inhalants

Chemist Yu-Shin Ding examines brain scans.

An aerial view of Brookhaven Lab
Key Findings

Brookhaven scientistsmade the first images ofcocaine in the brain andthe first studies linkingcocaine’s effects onbrain function to thecompulsive use of thedrug. These efforts ledto the first documentation of stroke-like changes in the brains of cocaine

abusers and a series of studies to map the biochemicaland anatomical changes responsible for drug-addictivebehaviors. To date, these studies have shown that:• Cocaine given intravenously enters the brain rapidly,and it is this rapid entry that parallels the “high.”• Smokers experience a temporary decrease in abrain enzyme that breaks down chemicals involvedin pleasure and reward.• All addictive drugs and behaviors deplete the brain’sreceptors for dopamine, a natural brain chemicalinvolved in movement, motivation, and the sensationsof pleasure and well-being.

• Cocaine abuin the brain, adrug use has s• The extreme by the use of aof normally rewlistening to mu• Environmentsettings where elevate brain d

Treatment Brookhaven scof pharmacologaddiction. One GABA, or GVanimal studies • By indirectly blocks the bioctested to date, iheroin, and me• Animals trainwill no longer • GVG blocks brain dopamineFurther studies used safely and addiction in huassistance with tion hotlines, savailable treatm

Sophisticated ToolsMuch of the addiction research at Brookhaven NationalLaboratory has used medical imaging techniques ofever-increasing sophistication, combined with tailormade radiotracer chemicals developed at the Laboratory.These research tools are a natural outgrowth ofBrookhaven’s historical focus on finding valuableapplications for advances in nuclear physics.Positron Emission Tomography (PET)Positron emission tomography(PET) is a medical imagingmethod that can measure theconcentration and movementof substances in living tissue.Scientists track substances bylabeling them with radioisotopes, variations of chemicalelements that give off particlesor energy. Those that emitpositrons, a type of subatomicparticle, are detected byPET scanners.Brookhaven scientists pioneered the development ofPET technology and the radiotracers whose movementis tracked by PET. Today, the Laboratory has some ofthe world’s most advanced PET scanners. Due to its

inherent quantitative biochemicalnature, PET has thetechnical capabilityto help reveal themolecular mechanisms of humandisease and tofacilitate thedevelopment ofnew drugs.

Radiotracer ChemistryBrookhaven chemists were the first to radio-labelcocaine so that it could be used for PET addictionstudies. They also developed a fluorine-glucoseradiotracer now used worldwide to make images ofbrain function and to diagnose cancer.

A precursor to today’s PETscanners, developed atBrookhaven in the 1960s

PET scans reveal depleted dopamine receptors (indicated byless red) in alcoholic, obese, and cocaine-abusing subjects(top) compared with normal controls (bottom).

One of Brookhaven’s modern PET scanners

A normal brain, leafter taking the drbright red and yel

Side view of a brain, showingcocaine (red) flooding the brain,including the “pleasure centers.”

Brookhaven’s addiction research is funded primarily by the Office of Biological and EU.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse oAll studies are conducted with strict adherence to ethical standards and only after review by app