US EditionResearchers Got Fruit Flies Addicted to Cocaine for Science
- Researchers at the University of Utah engineered genetically modified fruit flies in 2025 that voluntarily consume and become addicted to cocaine.
- This research arose because fruit flies naturally avoid cocaine due to bitter-sensing taste receptors that detect it as a plant toxin.
- Scientists muted the flies' bitter taste nerves, leading the flies to develop a preference for low-dose cocaine within 16 hours, mimicking human responses.
- Philyaw explained that using fruit flies enables rapid expansion of research efforts, facilitating the swift discovery of risk genes that are challenging to investigate in mammalian models.
- This novel fruit fly model could accelerate research into cocaine use disorder, which affects about 1.5 million Americans, by revealing addiction biology and aiding new therapies.
42 Articles
42 Articles
A study in the Journal of Neuroscientist describes fruit flies as "gold mine" to understand cocaine dependence. Scientists say that insects respond to drugs in a similar way to humans.
Researchers got fruit flies hooked on cocaine - here's what they learned
Fruit flies are interesting little creatures. On top of being extremely invasive and annoying to deal with, they also have a bit of a super power when it comes to drugs: they don’t like cocaine for any reason. That’s a bit of of a problem for scientists as fruit flies are a easy to use when conducting experiments. Thankfully, genetic modification has come a long way, especially in recent years. Not only have we managed to genetically modify mosq…
Daily Journal
Researchers got fruit flies addicted to cocaine for science
And they hope their research could lead to a cure for drug addiction.
Fruit flies share 75% of the genes involved in addiction to substances such as cocaine with humans. Thanks to this similarity, scientists have been able to reveal the genetics of addiction and contribute to the acceleration of the development of therapies according to a study collected this Monday in the Journal of Neuroscience.These insects can be very useful to degranate the biology of cocaine addiction. In addition to sharing with humans the …
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