Abstract #2141

Wu G, Yin K, Xu G, Yang Z, Li S

The functional MRI method has demonstrated that cocaine-cue induced positive BOLD signal changes in regions of the anterior medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the subcollosal cortex correlated with craving ratings in human cocaine users. If this positive BOLD signal could serve as a biomarker for drug craving, a medication that can specifically induce a negative BOLD signal in these regions could have the potential to extinguish the drug craving. A present fMRI study demonstrated that a Chinese herb extract, L-Tetrahydropalmatine (L-THP), significantly induced a negative BOLD signal in these regions in heroin-dependent rats, suggesting that L-THP would have such a therapeutic potential for anticraving.