Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Increased activity of lateral habenula (LHb) neurons is correlated with aversive states including pain, opioid abstinence, rodent models of depression, and failure to receive a predicted reward. Agonists at the mu opioid receptor (MOR) are among the most powerful rewarding and pain relieving drugs. Injection of the MOR agonist morphine directly into the habenula produces analgesia, raising the possibility that MOR acts locally within the LHb. Consequently, we examined the synaptic actions of MOR agonists in the LHb using whole cell patch clamp recording. We found that the MOR selective agonist DAMGO inhibits a subset of LHb neurons both directly and by inhibiting glutamate release onto these cells. Paradoxically, DAMGO also presynaptically inhibited GABA release onto most LHb neurons. The behavioral effect of MOR activation will thus depend upon both the level of intrinsic neuronal activity in the LHb and the balance of activity in glutamate and GABA inputs to different LHb neuronal populations.
Source: PLoS ONE
Authors: Elyssa B. Margolis, Howard L. Fields
Institution: University of California, San Francisco
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,382
Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Award: G1344208620
OpenAlex ID: W2478802193