Cocaine is a drug that acts by blocking dopamine transporters, the proteins responsible for the reuptake of dopamine from the synaptic cleft. Your friend Fadi suggests that inhibiting COMT (the enzyme that breaks down dopamine) can be a successful way to treat cocaine addiction. Do you agree with him? Explain your answer.

Cocaine is a drug that acts by blocking dopamine transporters, the proteins responsible for the reuptake of dopamine from the synaptic cleft. Your friend Fadi suggests that inhibiting COMT (the enzyme that breaks down dopamine) can be a successful way to treat cocaine addiction. Do you agree with him? Explain your answer.

Human Biology (MindTap Course List)

11th Edition

ISBN:9781305112100

Author:Cecie Starr, Beverly McMillan

Publisher:Cecie Starr, Beverly McMillan

Chapter13: The Nervous System

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 3SQ: When action potentials arrive at a synapse between a neuron and another cell, they stimulate the...

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Similar questions

A neuron responds to adequate stimulation with _______, a type of self-propagating signal.
The effects of alcohol are not fully understood but it does seem to inhibit GABAnergic neurons. How would the release of dopamine from the postsynaptic neuron change in this case? Explain your answer, being sure to make each connection between concepts
I have stimulated a neuron with dopamine for a second followed by treating it with cocaine and calcium chelating agent (which chelates out all calcium from the system making them unavailable for function), what will be the effect of such impulse on generating an action potential in the post-synaptic neuron? Will it be different if I pretreat the set of nerve cells with cocaine and calcium chelating agent followed by stimulating the neuron with dopamine? Justify your answer with proper reasoning in brief.
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At a given synapse, the _____ neuron has neurotransmitter receptors.
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______Synaptic potentiation ____ _________results when a presynaptic cell is stimulated repeatedly or continuously, resulting in an __________ release of neurotransmitter.__________ __________results when another neuron __________ the release of an excitatory neurotransmitter from a presynaptic cell.
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If a synapse has already developed LTP once, should it be easier or more difficult to get it to develop LTP again? Why?