Hot Off the Press – July 8, 2022 Published in Pharmacological Research by Paulo De Oliveira, Ph.D. and Sergi Ferré, M.D., Ph.D. of the NIDA-IRP Integrative Neurobiology Section. Summary We recently demonstrated that complexes (heteromers) of μ-opioid receptors (MORs) and receptors for the neuropeptide galanin of the Gal1subtype (Gal1Rs) localized in the brainstem (in the… [Read More]
Hot off the Press
Brain lesions disrupting addiction map to a common human brain circuit.
Hot Off the Press – June 15, 2022 Published in Nature Medicine, with contributions by Khaled Moussawi, M.D., Ph.D., Harshwardhan Deshpande, Ph.D., Thomas Ross, Ph.D. and Elliot Stein, Ph.D. of NIDA-IRP. Summary Sometimes regional brain damage (also called a lesion – for example from a stroke) leads to spontaneous remission of addiction – in the… [Read More]
Reversing anterior insular cortex neuronal hypoexcitability attenuates compulsive behavior in adolescent rats
Hot Off the Press – May 27, 2022 Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by Dr. Kshitij Jadhav (2019 Predoctoral trainee at NIDA-IRP), Dr. Benjamin Boutrel (Ph.D. supervisor, University of Lausanne, Switzerland) and Dr. Carl Lupica (Project Supervisor, Electrophysiology Research Section, NIDA-IRP). Summary Adolescents are labelled as high risk-taking impulsive individuals… [Read More]
Corticosteroid sensitization drives opioid addiction
Hot Off the Press – April 5, 2022 Published in Molecular Psychiatry by Stephanie Carmack and Leandro Vendruscolo et, al. of the NIDA IRP Neurobiology of Addiction Section. Summary The sharp increase in opioid overdose-related deaths in the United States is a public health emergency. An urgent search to uncover the biological mechanisms of opioid… [Read More]
Involvement of the ghrelin system in the maintenance of oxycodone self-administration: converging evidence from endocrine, pharmacologic and transgenic approaches
Hot Off the Press – February 7, 2022 Published in Molecular Psychiatry by Zhi-Bing You and Lorenzo Leggio et, al. at NIDA IRP. Ghrelin, an orexigenic hormone, has recently emerged as a critical biological substrate implicated in drug reward. However, the reciprocal interactions between the endogenous ghrelin system and drug-motivated behaviors remain to be understood…. [Read More]
Detailed mapping of behavior reveals the formation of prelimbic neural ensembles across operant learning
Hot Off the Press – January 3, 2022 Published in Neuron by Yan Zhang, Alex Denman, and Da-Ting Lin, et al. of the NIDA IRP Neural Engineering Section. Zhang and Denman et al developed deep behavior mapping (DBM), a self-supervised learning method for fine-grained analysis of behavioral micro-states in video data. They combined DBM with… [Read More]
Waving through the window: a model of volitional social interaction in female mice
Hot Off the Press – December 21, 2021 Published in Biological Psychiatry by Leslie Ramsey, et al. In this study we introduce a model of volitional social learning and choice in female mice. We systematically compare two widely used mouse strains at two different developmental stages: adolescent and adult C57BL/6 mice and outbred CD1 mice. Unexpectedly,… [Read More]
Orbitofrontal cortex and dorsal striatum functional connectivity predicts incubation of opioid craving after voluntary abstinence
Hot Off the Press – November 5, 2021 We recently introduced a rat model of incubation (time-dependent increase) of oxycodone craving after voluntary abstinence induced by negative consequences of drug seeking. We used resting-state functional MRI to determine whether longitudinal functional connectivity changes in orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) circuits would predict incubation of oxycodone seeking after… [Read More]
Sex differences in the effect of chronic delivery of the buprenorphine analog BU08028 on heroin relapse and choice in a rat model of opioid maintenance
Hot Off the Press – October 12, 2021 Previous studies reported that the NOP/µ receptor partial agonist BU08028 produced antinociception in rodents and non-human primates and is not self-administered by non-human primates, leading to the suggestion that BU08028 can be a promising candidate for opioid addiction treatment. In a buprenorphine-validated rat model of opioid agonist… [Read More]
The protective effect of operant social reward on cocaine self-administration, choice, and relapse is dependent on delay and effort for the social reward
Hot Off the Press – August 24, 2021 In humans who use addictive drugs, social-reinforcement-based treatments can protect against drug use and relapse, but not in all patients. We used a new operant rat model that mimics features of one such treatment, the community-reinforcement approach; having previously shown that rats choose social reinforcement over heroin… [Read More]
