Project description:We performed single-nuclei RNAseq of Brown Norway rat nucleus accumbens after a single injection of morphine or after morhpine self-administration
Project description:Morphine addiction causes major medical and social problems worldwide. Chronic morphine exposure results in the development of behavioral sensitization, accompanied by the disruption of brain homeostasis. As a key brain reward region, nucleus accumbens (NAc) plays a central role in brain reward mechanisms. However, the contribution of morphine exposure to NAc is poorly understood. Here we indicated that chronic morphine exposure induced neuroinflammation, abnormal neuronal physiology, and dysregulation of glycolytic metabolism in NAc. In summary, our findings illustrate the effects of morphine in NAc, and provide a new insight for development of future morphine addiction therapeutics.
Project description:RNA-sequencing was performed using nucleus accumbens tissue from male and female rats following 1 or 30 days of morphine self-admininstration or sucrose self-adminnistration.
Project description:Chronic opioid treatment elicits hyperalgesia in mice that is significantly augmented by a human migraine trigger and reduced with migraine therapy. The purpose of this study was to profile mRNA levels (transcriptome) to understand the differences between opioid (morphine) and vehicle treatments in two nervous system regions, the trigeminal ganglia and the nucleus accumbens. Mice received 10 mL/kg intraperitoneal injections of either morphine or vehicle volume twice daily (s.c.) for 4 days where on days 1-3 the dose of morphine was 20 mg/kg, and on day 4 it was 40 mg/kg.
Project description:Substance use disorders (SUDs) are associated with disruptions in sleep and circadian rhythms that persist during abstinence and may contribute to relapse risk. Repeated use of substances such as psychostimulants and opioids may lead to significant alterations in molecular rhythms in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a brain region central to reward and motivation. Previous studies have identified rhythm alterations in the transcriptome of the NAc and other brain regions following the administration of psychostimulants or opioids. However, little is known about the impact of substance use on the diurnal rhythms of the proteome in the NAc. We used liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry-based (LC-MS/MS) quantitative proteomics, along with a data-independent acquisition (DIA) analysis pipeline, to investigate the effects of cocaine or morphine administration on diurnal rhythms of proteome in the mouse NAc. Overall, our data reveals cocaine and morphine differentially alters diurnal rhythms of the proteome in the NAc, with largely independent differentially expressed proteins dependent on time-of-day. Pathways enriched from cocaine altered protein rhythms were primarily associated with glucocorticoid signaling and metabolism, whereas morphine was associated with neuroinflammation. Collectively, these findings are the first to characterize the diurnal regulation of the NAc proteome and demonstrate a novel relationship between phase-dependent regulation of protein expression and the differential effects of cocaine and morphine on the NAc proteome.
Project description:We performed single-nuclei RNAseq of Sprague Dawley rat area postrema and nucleus tractus solitarius brain samples to identify cellular subtypes.
Project description:Opioid use disorder is a public health crisis that leads to tremendous suffering for patients as well as substantial social and economic cost for society. There are currently available treatments for patients with opioid use disorder, but they remain intolerable or ineffective for many. The need to develop new avenues for therapeutics development in this space is great. There is a tremendous amount of work that has been done in models of substance use disorders, including opioid use disorder, demonstrating that prolonged exposure to drugs of abuse leads to marked dysregulation of the transcriptional and epigenetic landscape of important limbic substructures. It is widely believed that these changes in the regulation of gene expression in response to drugs may be a key driving factor in the perpetuation of drug taking and seeking behaviors. Thus, development of interventions that could shape transcriptional regulation in response to drugs of abuse would be of high value. Over the past decade there has been a surge in research demonstrating that the resident bacteria of the gastrointestinal tract, collectively the gut microbiome, can have tremendous influence on neurobiological and behavioral plasticity. Previous work from our group and others has demonstrated that alterations in the gut microbiome can alter behavioral responses to opioids in multiple different paradigms. Additionally, we have previously reported that depletion of the gut microbiome with antibiotics markedly shifts the transcriptome of the nucleus accumbens following prolonged morphine exposure. In this manuscript we present a comprehensive analysis of the effects of the gut microbiome on transcriptional regulation of the nucleus accumbens following morphine by utilizing germ-free, antibiotic treated, and control mice. This allows for detailed understanding of the role of the microbiome in regulating baseline transcriptomic control, as well as response to morphine. We find that germ-free status leads to a marked gene dysregulation in a manner distinct to adult mice treated with antibiotics, and that altered gene pathways are highly related to cellular metabolic processes. These data provide additional insight into the role of the gut microbiome in modulating brain function and lay a foundation for further study in this area.
Project description:We performed single-nuclei RNAseq of Sprague Dawley rat area postrema and nucleus tractus solitarius brain samples from animals treated with GDF-15 to identify cellular subtype specific changes in the neural transcriptome.