[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.