Yasmin Hurd seminar abstract

Opioid genes in the actions of drugs of abuse: Perspectives from human and experimental animal models

Yasmin Hurd

Karolinska Institute, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Psychiatry Section, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden

Opioid neuropeptide genes are highly expressed in limbic-related brain regions that are considered important neuroanatomical substrates for drug addiction. It has been well documented that alterations in opioid neuropeptide gene expression occur not only after administration of opiate drugs, but also following the use of different types of psychoactive substances. The use of psychostimulant drugs such as cocaine whose primary pharmacological actions are at dopamine neurons have been shown in both humans and animal models to have strong effects on the mRNA expression of the dynorphin opioid peptide and its receptor, kappa. Recent studies have also demonstrated a tight interaction between the cannabinoid and opioid neuropeptide systems. The issues to be addressed relate to whether opioid neuropeptides might serve as common targets for “all” drugs of abuse, whether there is a limbic regional specificity of the opioid neuropeptide gene alterations following drug use, and what are the specific patterns of the opioid gene expression for different types of addictive substances.