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Featured Paper of the Month – April 2016
Published in Biological Psychiatry by Justinova, Zuzana; Panlilio, Leigh V; Secci, Maria E; Redhi, Godfrey H; Schindler, Charles W; Cross, Alan J; Mrzljak, Ladislav; Medd, Amy; Shaham, Yavin; Goldberg, Steven R

Based on rodent studies, group II metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR2 and mGluR3) were suggested as targets for addiction treatment. However, LY379268 and other group II agonists do not discriminate between the mainly presynaptic inhibitory mGluR2 (the proposed treatment target) and mGluR3. These agonists also produce tolerance over repeated administration and are no longer considered for addiction treatment…

Featured Paper of the Month – March 2016
Published in Biological Psychiatry by Caprioli, Daniele; Venniro, Marco; Zeric, Tamara; Li, Xuan; Adhikary, Sweta; Madangopal, Rajtarun; Marchant, Nathan J; Lucantonio, Federica; Schoenbaum, Geoffrey; Bossert, Jennifer M; Shaham, Yavin

Cue-induced methamphetamine craving increases after prolonged forced (experimenter-imposed) abstinence from the drug (incubation of methamphetamine craving). Here, we determined whether this incubation phenomenon would occur under conditions that promote voluntary (self-imposed) abstinence…

Featured Paper of the Month – February 2016
Published in Cell Reports by Wang, Huikun; Treadway, Tyler; Covey, Daniel P; Cheer, Joseph F; Lupica, Carl R

Cocaine is a highly addictive drug that acts upon the brain’s reward circuitry via the inhibition of monoamine uptake. Endogenous cannabinoids (eCB) are lipid molecules released from midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons that modulate cocaine’s effects through poorly understood mechanisms…

Featured Paper of the Month – January 2016
Published in The Journal of Medical Chemistry by Boateng, Comfort A; Bakare, Oluyomi M; Zhan, Jia; Banala, Ashwini K; Burzynski, Caitlin; Pommier, Elie; Keck, Thomas M; Donthamsetti, Prashant; Javitch, Jonathan A; Rais, Rana; Slusher, Barbara S; Xi, Zheng-Xiong; Newman, Amy Hauck

The dopamine D3 receptor (D3R) is a promising target for the development of pharmacotherapeutics to treat substance use disorders. Several D3R-selective antagonists are effective in animal models of drug abuse, especially in models of relapse. Nevertheless, poor bioavailability, metabolic instability, and/or predicted toxicity have impeded success in translating these drug candidates to clinical use…

Featured Paper of the Month – December 2015
Published in The Journal of Medical Chemistry by Selfridge, Brandon R; Wang, Xiaohui; Zhang, Yingning; Yin, Hang; Grace, Peter M; Watkins, Linda R; Jacobson, Arthur E; Rice, Kenner C

Activation of Toll-like receptors has been linked to neuropathic pain and opioid dependence. (+)-Naltrexone acts as a Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) antagonist and has been shown to reverse neuropathic pain in rat studies. We designed and synthesized compounds based on (+)-naltrexone and (+)-noroxymorphone and evaluated their TLR4 antagonist activities by their effects on inhibiting lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced TLR4 downstream nitric oxide (NO) production in microglia BV-2 cells…

Featured Paper of the Month – November 2015
Published in JAMA Psychiatry by Hu, Yuzheng; Salmeron, Betty Jo; Gu, Hong; Stein, Elliot A; Yang, Yihong

Converging evidence has long identified both impulsivity and compulsivity as key psychological constructs in drug addiction. Although dysregulated striatal-cortical network interactions have been identified in cocaine addiction, the association between these brain networks and addiction is poorly understood…