Acamprosate, Craving and Alcohol Use Disorder: the Role of Inflammation

The present study utilized patient-derived “cell-line” model systems treated with anti-craving drugs that are used to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD) as “molecular probes” to help identify molecular mechanisms associated with craving and AUD treatment outcomes. We set out to study the effects of ethanol, and anti-craving drugs on gene expression regulation in iPSC-derived astrocytes. Cells were seeded in T75 flasks treated with EtOH (25 mM), a concentration that is considered physiologically relevant for EtOH use, with 25 mM EtOH being slightly higher than the 0.08% blood alcohol concentration that is often used as a measure of intoxication. The concentrations of acamprosate (5 µM, Sigma, A6981) and naltrexone (30 nM, Selleckchem, S2103) used to perform those experiments were selected to fall within the range of blood concentrations for these drugs observed during clinical therapy. Cells were cultured with the drugs for seven days and the medium was changed daily.