Abstract:
Each year, tens of thousands of people in the United States die of opioid overdose, suffer from chronic pain, or struggle with diabetes. Though unique in origin, a common thread uniting these public health crises is their sensitivity to opioid interventions. However, while opioids are known to profoundly affect each of these diseases, our mechanistic understanding for how endogenous opioids function in healthy or disease states remains poorly understood. Here, we leverage and develop next-generation, opioid-specific, tools for neuroscientific and metabolic experimentation. Current projects include: 1) How mu opioid receptors in nucleus accumbens regulate affect and motivation, 2) How endogenous enkephalins in lateral dorsal raphe nucleus modulate appetitive and aversive motivated behaviors, and 3) How endogenous mu opioid receptors in pancreatic islets contribute to glucose homeostasis and diabetes. Overall, our goal is to understand where, when, and how endogenous opioid systems mediate a variety of biological and psychological functions.