NIH R01 · 2025
ABSTRACT The present crisis of opioid addiction in the United States highlights how an initial exposure to opioids, often oxycodone, as a medical patient can lead to escalation of use, misuse and eventually addiction. Chronic exposure to oxycodone produces tolerance to many of its effects, and it is this development of tolerance that leads to taking increasingly higher doses and to withdrawal upon abstinence. Drug-induced adaptations in gene expression and neuronal function are thought to underlie the development of tolerance and withdrawal, but the mechanisms by which this occurs remain unclear. We have found that the habenula-interpeduncular nucleus (IPN), which plays a prominent role in…
From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.