29 Jun 2009, 1447 hrs IST

Alcohol's intoxicating effects are universally known, but its impact on brain activity remains shrouded in mystery. Now researchers have edged closer to unravelling how alcohol alters the way brain cells work.

Findings from the research conducted at the Salk Institute have revealed an alcohol trigger site located physically within an ion channel protein. These results could lead to the development of novel treatments for alcoholism, drug addiction and epilepsy.

Ethanol, the alcohol in intoxicating beverages, is known to alter the communication between brain cells, said a Salk Institute release.

"There's been a lot of interest in the field to find out how alcohol acts in the brain," said Paul A. Slesinger, professor at the Peptide Biology Lab, Salk Institute, who led the study.

"One of several views held was that ethanol works by interacting directly with ion channel proteins, but there were no studies that visualized the site of association," he said.

Slesinger and his team now show that alcohol directly interacts with a specific nook contained within a channel protein. This ion channel plays a key role in several brain functions associated with drugs of abuse and seizures.

These findings were published in the current online edition of Nature Neuroscience.

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