AUTHOR=Kong Qingyao, Wu Xiaoyang, Xu Ming TITLE=A Genetically Modified Skin Graft for Treating Alcohol Use Disorder and/or Polysubstance Abuse With Cocaine JOURNAL=Advances in Drug and Alcohol Research VOLUME=1 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontierspartnerships.org/articles/10.3389/adar.2021.10007 DOI=10.3389/adar.2021.10007 ISSN=2674-0001 ABSTRACT=Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the foremost public health problems. Alcohol is also frequently co-abused with cocaine. There is a huge unmet need for the treatment of AUD and/or cocaine co-abuse. We have developed and used a skin stem cell-based gene delivery platform and found that production of the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP1) from the grafted genetically modified skin reduced development and reinstatement of alcohol-induced drug-taking and seeking, voluntary oral alcohol consumption and alcohol-induced increase in dopamine (DA) levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Moreover, we have developed a novel co-grafting procedure for both modified human butyrylcholinesterase (hBChE)- and GLP1-expressing cells. Skin grafts-derived hBChE and GLP1 reduced acquisition of drug-taking and toxicity induced by concurrent alcohol and cocaine injections. These results imply that gene delivery through skin transplants may add a new option to treat drug abuse and co-abuse.