A recent study by scientist have tested on a pregnant mice have shown that the brain cells eats up itself when taken in high doses. Cocaine is reported to cause "autophagy", it can also be used to dissolve unwanted cells.
According to Dr Prasun Guha who led other team of researchers;
Autophagy is the housekeeper that takes out the trash - it's usually a good thing. But cocaine makes the housekeeper throw away really important things, like mitochondria, which produce energy for the cell
A new drug was also shown to prevent Autophagy, but it is yet to be tested on humans. Also the co-author of the research, Dr Maged Harraz, added "Since cocaine works exclusively to modulate autophagy versus other cell death programs, there's a better chance that we can develop new targeted therapeutics to suppress its toxicity"