{"id":19964,"date":"2025-10-05T17:24:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T16:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=19964"},"modified":"2025-12-06T18:46:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T17:46:28","slug":"high-intensity-exercise-may-protect-against-cocaine-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2025\/10\/high-intensity-exercise-may-protect-against-cocaine-addiction\/","title":{"rendered":"High-Intensity Exercise May Protect Against Cocaine Addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">By Neuroscience &#8211; September 21, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">The findings were significant, Thanos explains, because not only did the HIIT animals exhibit a preference for the saline chamber, they exhibited a clear aversion to the cocaine chamber. Credit: Neuroscience News<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Summary:\u00a0<\/strong>A new study shows that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is more effective than moderate exercise at protecting adolescent lab animals from cocaine use. Animals exposed to HIIT developed a preference for non-drug environments and an aversion to cocaine, linked to increases in \u0394FosB, a molecular switch involved in addiction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">These results suggest exercise intensity matters in shaping the brain\u2019s reward system and its response to drugs. The findings may inform new strategies for using exercise as a personalized tool in substance use disorder prevention and treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Key Facts<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>HIIT Impact:<\/strong>\u00a0High-intensity exercise made animals avoid cocaine and prefer safe environments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Molecular Mechanism:<\/strong>\u00a0HIIT raised \u0394FosB levels, a transcription factor tied to addiction pathways.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Personalized Tool:<\/strong>\u00a0Exercise may act as dose-dependent medicine for addiction prevention.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong>University at Buffalo<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>People with substance use disorder who participate in recovery running programs have shown improved success in maintaining their sobriety and reducing their risk for relapse.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">Those observations led Panayotis Thanos, a University at Buffalo neuroscientist who studies the brain\u2019s reward system, to try to figure out the brain mechanisms behind that phenomenon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">In a new study published today in\u00a0<em>PLOS One<\/em>, Thanos, PhD, senior research scientist in the Clinical and Research Institute on Addictions in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, and co-authors reveal that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) was more effective than moderate exercise in making adolescent lab animals avoid cocaine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">The researchers used adolescent lab animals because this is the age when most people who develop substance use disorder begin their exposure. The study focused on male rats only because previous observations have revealed some gender differences in drug-seeking behaviors between males and females. The researchers plan a future study on how HIIT affects females with regard to cocaine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>HIIT as personalized medicine<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">\u201cThe study shows that HIIT exercise, rather than moderate exercise, during adolescence may protect against cocaine abuse,\u201d says Thanos, a faculty member in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the Jacobs School.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">The findings provide evidence that HIIT could become a personalized medicine tool in drug abuse intervention.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">\u201cThe key take-home is that not all exercise is created equal in terms of outcome,\u201d Thanos says. \u201cExercise is not a binary therapeutic tool but rather we need to think about exercise as dose-dependent, the way we think of medicine as dose-dependent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">In the study, rats exposed to HIIT exercise on a treadmill were compared to rats exposed to moderate treadmill exercise. Both groups then underwent a behavioral test called cocaine place preference, which trains the animal to discriminate between two chambers: one where they can access cocaine and one where they can access saline. Cocaine preference is when the animal spends more time in the cocaine chamber, while cocaine aversion is when the animal chooses to spend more time in the saline chamber.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">The findings were significant, Thanos explains, because not only did the HIIT animals exhibit a preference for the saline chamber, they exhibited a clear aversion to the cocaine chamber.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Increase in a molecular switch for addiction<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">\u201cWe believe that the increase in aversion to cocaine happens in the HIIT animals,\u201d Thanos says, \u201cbecause of this exercise dose-dependent effect on the brain\u2019s reward circuit that involves an increase we observed in \u0394FosB.\u201d \u0394FosB is a transcription factor commonly referred to as a molecular switch for addiction and known to boost sensitivity to drugs of abuse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">\u201cOur study showed that HIIT increased\u00a0\u0394FosB levels causing an aversion to consuming cocaine,\u201d he adds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">The findings reveal new avenues that Thanos and his colleagues plan to explore, including how HIIT may affect brain metabolism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">\u201cWe know from recent studies in our lab with steady, moderate treadmill running that compared to sedentary animals, exercise decreased metabolism in the somatosensory cortex of the brain while activating other brain regions involved in planning and decision,\u201d he says. \u201cThat activation may help dampen various aspects of cocaine abuse and relapse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">The paper also discusses the need to better understand gender differences in preference for cocaine. \u201cFuture studies need to explore how HIIT affects cocaine preference in female rats,\u201d Thanos says, adding that the literature in the field includes evidence that females seem to be more vulnerable to certain phases of addiction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">UB co-authors are Teresa Quattin, MD, UB Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and senior associate dean for research integration in the Jacobs School; Nikki Hammond, a former graduate student; and Nabeel Rahman<sup>\u00a0<\/sup>and Sam Zhan,<sup>\u00a0<\/sup>former undergraduate students in Thanos\u2019 lab. Other co-authors are from Washington University School of Medicine and Western University of Health Sciences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">Source: <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/neurosciencenews.com\/hiit-exercise-addiction-neuroscience-29715\/\">https:\/\/neurosciencenews.com\/hiit-exercise-addiction-neuroscience-29715\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Neuroscience &#8211; September 21, 2025 The findings were significant, Thanos explains, because not only did the HIIT animals exhibit a preference for the saline chamber, they exhibited a clear aversion to the cocaine chamber. Credit: Neuroscience News Summary:\u00a0A new study shows that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is more effective than moderate exercise at protecting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,63,31,68,40,36,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals","category-brain-and-behaviour","category-cocaine","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-prevention-research","category-treatment-addiction","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19965,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19964\/revisions\/19965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}