Waggoner and O’Quinn Professor - Department of Psychiatry Professor - Department of Neuroscience M.D., Cornell College of Medicine, 1977 Baylor College of Medicine Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center Research 151 - BLDG 110, Room 229 2002 Holcombe Boulevard Houston, TX 77030 Telephone: 713-794-7032 - Fax: 713-794-7240 Email: kosten@bcm.edu

Dr. Tom Kosten’s research group moved from Yale University to Baylor College of Medicine in 2006.  They are setting up new work in several areas of neuroscience and would welcome graduate students and post-doctoral fellows interested in translational neuroscience and behavioral pharmacology involving substance dependence, particularly.  The lab that Dr. Tom Kosten runs in conjunction with Dr. Therese A. Kosten, also includes broader interests in developmental epigenetics of behavioral disorders.  Their laboratory carries out clinical neuroscience studies in substance dependence and post traumatic stress disorder utilizing neuroimaging, pharmacogenetics, and immunotherapy. The lab has collaborative research with investigators and patient populations in St. Petersburg, Russia and Beijing, China. The research in the Kostens’ lab is divided into three major approaches:

Neuroimaging research includes detecting and treating cocaine induced cerebral perfusion defects and using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to predict pharmacotherapy outcomes.  The lab is also conducting experiments with amphetamine administration utilizing fMRI.

Immunotherapy work focuses on medication development and over the past 10 years has led to the successful development of a cocaine vaccine that has now entered the final phases of human studies for FDA approval.  The lab is also working on animal models of immunotherapy for methamphetamine.

Pharmacogenetics work includes translational research for cocaine, nicotine, opiates and alcohol. Disulfiram is being evaluated for cocaine dependence.  This inhibitor of the enzyme dopamine beta hydroxylase has shown clinical efficacy in patients with genetically low levels of this enzyme, which is low due to a single nucleotide polymorphism in the promoter region.  Animal models show that disulfiram also induces expression of genes which can reverse deficits induced by chronic cocaine including loss of dopamine receptors.  The lab is also studying the alpha 7 cholinergic receptor in nicotine dependent schizophrenics in China treated with an alpha 7 cholinergic partial agonist.   The mu opiate receptor is being evaluated opiate and alcohol dependent patients in Russia who are being treated with the mu opiate antagonist, naltrexone.  Animal studies of RNA expression profiling and specific genetic polymorphisms are planned for these other medications and abused drugs.

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Haile CN, Kosten TA, Kosten TR:  Pharmacogenetic treatments for drug addiction: Alcohol and opiates. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2008; 34:355-381.

Zhang XY, Zhou DF, Wu GY, Cao LY, Tan YL, Haile CN, Li J, Lu L, Kosten TA, Kosten TR. BDNF Levels and Genotype are Associated with Antipsychotic-Induced Weight Gain in Patients with Chronic Schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2008. Aug;33(9):2200-5.

Gui S, Chen da F, Zhou DF, Sun HQ, Wu GY, Haile CN, Kosten TA, Kosten TR, Zhang XY:  Association of functional catechol O-methyl transferase (COMT) Val 108MET polymorphism with smoking severity and age of smoking initiation in Chinese male smokers.  Psychopharmacology 2007 Mar:190(4):449-56.

Zhang XY, Tan YL, Zhou DF, Cao LY, Wu GY, Haile CN, Kosten TA, Kosten TR:  Disrupted antioxidant enzyme activity and elevated lipid peroxidation products in schizophrenic patients with tardive dyskinesia.  J Clin Psychiatry. 2007 May:68(5):754-60

Zhang XY, Tan YL, Zhou DF, Haile CN, Wu GY, Cao LY, Kosten TA, Kosten TR.  Nicotine dependence, symptoms and oxidative stress in male patients with schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology. Sep.2007; 32(9):2020-4.

Kleber HD, Weiss RD Anton RF, Rounsaville BJ, George TP, Strain EC, Greenfield SF, Ziedonis DM, Kosten TR: Work Group on Substance Use Disorders: Treatment of patients with substance use disorders, second edition. American Psychiatric Association.  Am J psychiatry. 2007; 164(4 Suppl): 5-123.

Sinha R, Kimmerinling A, Doebrick C, Kosten TR: Effect of lofexidine on stress induced and cue-induced opioid craving and opioid abstinence rates: Preliminary findings. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2007; 190(4): 569-574.

Martell BA, Mitchell E, Poling J, Gonsai K, Kosten TR. Vaccine pharmacotherapy for the treatment of cocaine dependence. Biological Psychiatry 58:158-164, 2005.

Kosten TR, Owens SM. Immunotherapy for the treatment of drug abuse. Pharmacology and Therapeutics 108:76-85, 2005.

Haile CN, During MJ, Jatlow PI, Kosten TR, Kosten TA. Disulfiram facilitates the development and expression of locomotor sensitization to cocaine in rats. Biological Psychiatry 54(9):915-921, 2003.

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Joseph Cochin Award for research in substance abuse, Committee on Problems of Drug Dependence, Chartered Committee of National Academy of Science

President, College on Problems of Drug Dependence; Past President, American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry

Joel Elkes International Award for Outstanding Contributions to Psychopharmacology, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology

Member, Committee on Vaccines for Substance Abuse of National Academies of Sciences Institute of Medicine

Editor-in-Chief, American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse

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