澳大利亚和美国科学家通过研究发现,蜜蜂和人类在某种程度上存在很多相似——两者都会受到可卡因毒品的诱惑,并且大脑神经都会受可卡因影响,改变判断能力。
有关上诉结论的论文已于12月26日在《实验生物学杂志》在线发表,发表这篇文章的作者安德鲁表示:“这还是第一次在昆虫世界里发现对可卡因毒品有兴趣,并产生依赖的昆虫。”
据了解,在使用蜜蜂进行试验的过程中,研究人员让被试验的蜜蜂吸入微量的可卡因,之后将其放飞寻找食物。通常蜜蜂在采集花粉过程中都会在空中 “跳舞”,以便通过这种方式和同类进行沟通传达找到食物的信号,并且表示被找到的食物味道不错。
科学家通过研究发现,吸入可卡因的蜜蜂采集花粉时在空中跳舞的动作比其它正常的蜜蜂更为疯狂;看其在空中摇摆的动作和人类嗑药后反应极为相似。
安德鲁表示:“我们通过试验得出蜜蜂吸入可卡因后的影响和人类的几乎一样,因此我们得出结论:可卡因同样对蜜蜂有影响,会干扰他们的判断能力。我们还发现如果我们对吸入可卡因蜜蜂“突然完全停止使用毒品”,那么这些蜜蜂在识别物体上存在很大困难,这点和人类突然停止使用毒品的结果也是一样的。 ”
安德鲁希望通过对蜜蜂的研究,找到人类对毒品上瘾的“解药”——一种能中和毒品的物质。如果试验获得成功的话,这将使人类远离毒品的困扰。
安德鲁还说:“如果我们能提炼出这种物质,那么就能提供对吸毒上瘾患者治疗的新方案或减弱甚至阻止人类对毒品的依赖。”(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原始出处:
Journal of Experimental Biology,doi: 10.1242/jeb.025361 ,Andrew B. Barron,Gene E. Robinson
Effects of cocaine on honey bee dance behaviour
Andrew B. Barron1,2,*, Ryszard Maleszka1, Paul G. Helliwell1 and Gene E. Robinson2
1 ARC Centre for Molecular Genetics of Development, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
2 Department of Entomology and Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 505 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
The role of cocaine as an addictive drug of abuse in human society is hard to reconcile with its ecological role as a natural insecticide and plant-protective compound, preventing herbivory of coca plants (Erythroxylum spp.). This paradox is often explained by proposing a fundamental difference in mammalian and invertebrate responses to cocaine, but here we show effects of cocaine on honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) that parallel human responses. Forager honey bees perform symbolic dances to advertise the location and value of floral resources to their nest mates. Treatment with a low dose of cocaine increased the likelihood and rate of bees dancing after foraging but did not otherwise increase locomotor activity. This is consistent with cocaine causing forager bees to overestimate the value of the floral resources they collected. Further, cessation of chronic cocaine treatment caused a withdrawal-like response. These similarities likely occur because in both insects and mammals the biogenic amine neuromodulator systems disrupted by cocaine perform similar roles as modulators of reward and motor systems. Given these analogous responses to cocaine in insects and mammals, we propose an alternative solution to the paradox of cocaine reinforcement. Ecologically, cocaine is an effective plant defence compound via disruption of herbivore motor control but, because the neurochemical systems targeted by cocaine also modulate reward processing, the reinforcing properties of cocaine occur as a `side effect'.