US Scientists Developing Vaccine For Stress

웃 · August 2, 2010

(NewsCore) - The world's first vaccine for stress was undergoing development Sunday, as Californian scientists worked on a single injection that would help people relax without slowing down.

The quest for the lifetime cure to stress was led by Dr. Robert Sapolsky, professor of neuroscience at Stanford University, who after 30 years of research believes he can now alter the brain chemistry to create more “focused calm.”

Sapolsky said he was on the path to a genetically engineered alternative to yoga, pills and friends urging others to relax -- itself a recognized cause of tension.

Chronic stress, as opposed to everyday worries, is linked to illnesses ranging from diabetes to heart attacks.

Sapolsky, who first observed the damage caused by stress on animals in Kenya, has been working on hormones called glucocorticoids, which are part of the body’s immune system and help to fight cancer and inflammation.

All mammals produce these hormones, which help them deal with a threat -- often by running away. Sapolsky observed that, while a zebra will turn off the stress chemicals after escaping from a lion, modern man not only produces too many glucocorticoids in response to everyday alarms but cannot turn them off afterwards.

He says the hormone becomes toxic both biologically -- they destroy brain cells and weaken the immune system -- and socially, when people continue to snap at friends hours after the original cause of tension vanished.

After early setbacks, the Stanford team adapted a herpes virus to carry engineered “neuro-protective” genes deep into the brain to neutralize the rogue hormones before they can damage the brain. The virus is now shown to work on rats.

“To be honest, I’m still amazed that it works,” Sapolsky recently told Wired magazine. He warns that human trials are years away, “but we have proved that it’s possible. We can reduce the neural damage caused by stress.”

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpps/news/us-scientists-developing-vaccine-for-stress-dpgonc-km-2010801_8954720