| [00:00.10] |
From VOA Learning English, |
| [00:02.75] |
this is the Health Report. |
| [00:04.99] |
An international team of researchers |
| [00:07.93] |
has developed a drug that could help |
| [00:10.87] |
in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. |
| [00:14.50] |
PTSD is a mental condition that can develop |
| [00:18.89] |
when someone seize a disturbing event, or serious of events. |
| [00:24.71] |
People who suffer from it experience increased anxiety, |
| [00:29.55] |
depression and may have problems with their memory. |
| [00:33.78] |
Scientists say the drug could be given to someone |
| [00:37.67] |
immediately following a trauma to prevent the development of PTSD. |
| [00:43.79] |
Raul Andero Gali is a researcher |
| [00:47.27] |
at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, |
| [00:50.47] |
who studies the biology of PTSD. |
| [00:53.65] |
He says it is the only mental disorder |
| [00:57.19] |
that has a known trigger or cause, |
| [00:59.92] |
such as a car accident, or being in armed conflict. |
| [01:05.45] |
And this means researchers have a better chance of |
| [01:09.04] |
finding a treatment for it. |
| [01:11.18] |
"So we can even define more clearly |
| [01:13.47]which is the stimulus or the stressor that trigger[s] |
the disease, |
| [01:18.75] |
whereas with other psychiatric diseases it is way more difficult. |
| [01:23.23] |
For example, with depression or schizophrenia |
| [01:25.18] |
it is more uncertain what is triggering that disease." |
| [01:30.23] |
Doctor Gali and other researchers at Emory, |
| [01:33.57] |
the University of Miami in Florida, |
| [01:36.25] |
Scripps Research Institute in Florida |
| [01:39.15] |
and the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany |
| [01:44.28] |
worked to find gene associated with the development of PTSD. |
| [01:49.96] |
They found that in some people experiencing a high degree of stress, |
| [01:55.68] |
a gene called OPRL1 releases a protein receptor |
| [02:02.05] |
for a molecule called nociceptin in the brain. |
| [02:06.33] |
Doctor Gali says when that happens, |
| [02:10.89] |
people experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. |
| [02:15.12] |
The researchers experiment it on mice |
| [02:18.40] |
to develop a drug that blocks the receptor, |
| [02:21.95] |
reducing symptoms of anxiety and fear. |
| [02:26.00] |
Doctor Gali says investigators tested their drug, called SR8993, |
| [02:33.26] |
in mice train to feel an electric shock |
| [02:37.15] |
whenever they heard a specific sound. |
| [02:40.19] |
The mice became very stressed when they heard the sound. |
| [02:44.82] |
Doctor Gali says immediately after the sound and shocks, |
| [02:50.19] |
some of the mice were given SR8993, |
| [02:54.78] |
others were given a drug with no active ingredient called a placebo. |
| [03:01.08] |
"The day after the animals were tested to see |
| [03:04.42] |
how afraid they were for the tone. |
| [03:06.76] |
And the animals that got the compound SR8993 |
| [03:11.59] |
presented less fear to the tone. |
| [03:14.38] |
So their conservation of fear memories is decreased." |
| [03:20.16] |
Doctor Gali says much work needs to be done |
| [03:23.59] |
to determine if SR8993 is effective in humans. |
| [03:29.27] |
If it is, he believes it could be given to, for example, |
| [03:34.20] |
soldiers returning home from a war zone |
| [03:37.99] |
to keep them from developing PTSD. |
| [03:41.59] |
An article on this possible treatment |
| [03:45.16] |
for post-traumatic stress disorder is published |
| [03:48.60] |
in the journal Science Translational Medicine. |
| [03:52.08] |
And that's the Health Report, |
| [03:54.08] |
I'm Christopher Cruise. |
