Researchers say they succeeded in blunting the impact of cocaine on brain receptor cells by stimulating other brain cells, Reuters reported July 28.

"This is the piece of the puzzle that was not known before -- the mechanism a cell uses to get back to normal," said Christian Lüscher, a researcher at the University of Geneva.

Lüscher and colleagues conducted animal studies using lab mice to examine the brain receptor sites that get overstimulated by cocaine. They found that activity at these receptor sites could be brought back to normal if they stimulated another set of receptors -- potentially critical information for finding new ways to treat cocaine addiction.

"We have reversed the effect of cocaine and we show how the machinery in the cells has to be engaged in order to be reversed," Lüscher said.

The study was published in the July 27, 2007 issue of the journal Science.