Residues of ractopamine, a livestock feed additive, in meat might alleviate misuse of cocaine, nicotine, methamphetamine, and morphine.

Background: Substance misuse brings tremendous harm to global health. Strategies for the treatment and prevention of drug addiction are in urgent need. Aim: Trace amine-associated receptor 1 (TAAR1) widely distributed in the central nervous system has been identified as a hopeful target in the management of certain substance abuse. Discovery of food ingredients that act on TAAR1 might help health care providers develop chemoprevention for substance misuse disorders. Methods: Animal experiments clearly demonstrated the capability of TAAR1 agonists in attenuating addictive behavior regarding cocaine, nicotine, methamphetamine, and morphine. Ractopamine, a livestock feed additive used in the United States for over 20 years, has proven to be a full TAAR1 agonist. Literature review and internet web database survey were performed to see if ractopamine residues in meat could affect substance addiction behavior. Results: Integrating all available epidemiologic studies revealed that the prevalence of cocaine, nicotine, methamphetamine, and opioid misuse showed steadily downward or stable trends coincidently during the same time period of ractopamine use in the United States. Conclusion: A hypothesis is thus raised here that ractopamine residues in meat might have contributed secretly to the smoothened prevalence curves of cocaine, nicotine, methamphetamine, and opioids addiction.