Pubdate: Thu, 27 Nov 2003 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2003 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502 Author: William McCall, Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy) NEW HOPE FOR ECSTASY OVERDOSE TREATMENT RESEARCHERS have identified a protein that may play a role in the sometimes fatal hyperthermia that is caused by overdoses of the club drug Ecstasy. Experiments at Ohio Northern University show that mice bred without the protein called UCP-3 heat up less after they have been injected with doses of Ecstasy that kill normal rodents. The mouse studies are the earliest steps to finding a potential therapy to help humans who develop the irreversible complication after an Ecstasy overdose. When the body overheats enough, skeletal muscle breaks down and organs fail, leading to an agonizing death, said Ted Mills, a U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute researcher and co-author of the study appearing today in the journal Nature. "By isolating this protein, we might be able to see whether, in fact, we can block this hyperthermia from occurring," Mills said. "Nobody's been able to do that before." But there are relatively few deaths from overheating considering the enormous amount of Ecstasy produced and used around the world, said David Grandy, a molecular biologist at Oregon Health & Science University, which was not involved in the study. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh