Must Read: Scientists Warning: Cocaine Addict Men Are Likely To Have Sons With Brain Disabilities!
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A new study discovered that the harmful effects of drugs on DNA can be transported on sperm. Therefore, men who use cocaine are at risk of having sons with brain impairments, scientists warn.
The effects of cocaine used by fathers were commonly seen on male offsprings than daughters, or on any child of a female cocaine user. This research was developed from past studies that presented the effects of cocaine on DNA, which can survive even years after use. According to Daily Mail, scientists are still working to identify the timeline.
Researchers and their senior author Dr. R. Christopher Pierce, a professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania examined that hypothesis on mice.
The team involved sixteen male rats, which were assigned to drink water containing cocaine daily for 60 days. Another 16 male rat participants drank saline solution.
All the rat participants were then mated with female rats with no cocaine exposure. Paternal cocaine intake doesn't affect the rats' size, sex ratio, or growth progression.
Out of the 46 newborn rats, the male babies with fathers who took cocaine exhibited relevant issues of brain maturation. They determined that the expressions of genes, which are significant for memory development, were modified.
Male rats from fathers who took cocaine possess remarkably lower levels of D-serine, a molecule needed for memory. But when the researchers manipulated the levels of D-serine to a normal range, they saw enhanced learning abilities in these animals.
Dr. Pierce and his associates suggested that epigenetic mechanisms are the origin of the problem,
News-Medical.net reported. Epigenetics are heritable features, which are not formed through DNA sequence alteration, as in the situation of genetic inheritance.
DNA is firmly attached to proteins called histones. Chemical modifications to histones motivate the expression of genes, and this is the epigenetic process. The scientists discovered that cocaine abuse in dads extensively changed the chemical spots on histones in their sons' brain.
