Reviews To Read – July 2023. Published in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences by lead author Sergi Ferré of the NIDA IRP Integrative Neurobiology Section. It is generally assumed that the reinforcing effects of cannabinoids are related to their capacity to induce striatal dopamine release by targeting cannabinoid receptors in the mesencephalic origin of the dopaminergic… [Read More]
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Technology Development Initiative – Paper of the Month – July 2023
Revealing the structure of pharmacobehavioral space through motion sequencing. Nat Neurosci.
Standard behavioral assays that are used for screening candidate therapeutic drugs, such as the elevated plus maze and forced swim test, yield only one or two dimensions of information. Wiltschko et al. used a machine learning algorithm called MoSeq (for motion sequencing) to analyze 3D video recordings of twenty minutes of open field mouse activity, thereby obtaining a much higher dimensional readout of behavior in response to a wide variety of psychoactive drugs and doses. [Read More]
Dopamine D3/D2 Receptor Ligands Based on Cariprazine for the Treatment of Psychostimulant Use Disorders That May Be Dual Diagnosed with Affective Disorders
Featured Paper of the Month – July 2023
Published in The Journal of Medicinal Chemistry by Emma Gogarnoiu, Caleb Vogt and Amy Hauck Newman, et al. of the NIDA IRP Medicinal Chemistry Section.
Cocaine and methamphetamine are highly addictive psychostimulants that continue to challenge the health and well-being of those who develop a psychostimulant use disorder (PSUD). To date, there are no FDA approved medications for the treatment of PSUD and this provides a significant challenge to curb its destructive nature and prevent death by overdose.
Flow Cytometry of Synaptoneurosomes (FCS) Reveals Increased Ribosomal S6 and Calcineurin Proteins in Activated Medial Prefrontal Cortex to Nucleus Accumbens Synapses
Hot Off the Press – June 27, 2023 Published in The Journal of Neuroscience by Javier Rubio and Bruce Hope, et al. of the NIDA IRP Neuronal Ensembles in Drug Addiction Section. The study is a novel approach to study molecular alterations in individual synapses using Flow Cytometry of Synaptoneurosomes (FCS). The FCS approach was… [Read More]
Overdose mortality rates for opioids and stimulant drugs are substantially higher in men than in women: state-level analysis
Hot Off the Press – June 22, 2023 A new collaborative study coauthored by investigators from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NIDA-IRP, and NIDA-HQ showed that fatal overdoses on opioids or psychostimulants are 2-3 times more common in men than in women. This sex difference is far larger than those seen in most health-related behaviors. … [Read More]
Technology Development Initiative – Paper of the Month – June 2023
The Successor Representation: Its Computational Logic and Neural Substrates. J Neurosci.
In this paper, Gershman presents and builds upon a reinforcement learning algorithm first proposed by Peter Dayan in 1993, called the successor representation, which solves some important problems that previous classes of reinforcement learning algorithms have had. Recent research has supported the idea that humans and other animals use successor representations for learning and decision making under some conditions and has proposed that dopaminergic mechanisms could build successor representations in the brain. [Read More]
Mu Opioid Receptor Activation Mediates (S)-ketamine Reinforcement in Rats: Implications for Abuse Liability
Featured Paper of the Month – June 2023
Published in Biological Psychiatry by Marjorie Levinstein and Michael Michaelides, et al. of the NIDA IRP Biobehavioral Imaging and Molecular Neuropsychopharmacology Unit.
In this study, we show that S-ketamine not only binds to and activates MOR, but that this interaction is critical for its abuse liability. Specifically, we show that the opioid receptor antagonist naltrexone blocks brain activation by (S)-ketamine in the nucleus accumbens, a region crucial for reward, and also decreases lever pressing for (S)-ketamine in rats.
2023 Outstanding Poster Awards
Congratulations to our 2023 Outstanding Poster Award winners! They were honored at the 11th annual NIDA Poster Day and Mentoring Awards ceremony on May 11, 2023. Back row, left to right: Sarah Claypool, Qingfang Liu, Samanth Lee, Michelle Tsai, Ana Armenta Vega, Kelsey Shimoda, Noelle Henein, Laura Grasso, and Kareem Woods. Front row, left to right:… [Read More]
2023 NIDA IRP Mentoring Awards
Congratulations to our 2023 Mentoring Award winners! They were honored at the 11th annual NIDA Poster Day and Mentoring Awards ceremony on May 11, 2023. From left to right: Gisela Camacho Hernandez, Ph.D. – Diversity Mentoring Award; Yosuke Arima, Ph.D. – Postdoctoral Fellow Mentoring Award; Mehdi Farokhnia, M.D., M.P.H. – Staff Scientist Mentoring Award; and David… [Read More]
2023 NIDA IRP Postbaccalaureate Graduates
Congratulations and best wishes to the 2023 NIDA IRP Postbaccalaureate graduates!
