1. Neuroscience
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Synapse-specific Opioid Modulation of Thalamo-cortico-striatal Circuits

  1. William T Birdsong  Is a corresponding author
  2. Bart C Jongbloets
  3. Kim A Engeln
  4. Dong Wang
  5. Gregory Scherrer
  6. Tianyi Mao  Is a corresponding author
  1. Oregon Health and Science University, United States
  2. Stanford University, United States
Research Article
  • Cited 9
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Cite this article as: eLife 2019;8:e45146 doi: 10.7554/eLife.45146

Abstract

The medial thalamus (MThal), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and striatum play important roles in affective-motivational pain processing and reward learning. Opioids affect both pain and reward through uncharacterized modulation of this circuitry. This study examined opioid actions on glutamate transmission between these brain regions in mouse. Mu-opioid receptor (MOR) agonists potently inhibited MThal inputs without affecting ACC inputs to individual striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs). MOR activation also inhibited MThal inputs to the pyramidal neurons in the ACC. In contrast, delta-opioid receptor (DOR) agonists disinhibited ACC pyramidal neuron responses to MThal inputs by suppressing local feed-forward GABA signaling from parvalbumin-positive interneurons. As a result, DOR activation in the ACC facilitated poly-synaptic (thalamo-cortico-striatal) excitation of MSNs by MThal inputs. These results suggest that opioid effects on pain and reward may be shaped by the relative selectivity of opioid drugs to the specific circuit components.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. William T Birdsong

    Vollum Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, United States
    For correspondence
    wtbird@med.umich.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  2. Bart C Jongbloets

    Vollum Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Kim A Engeln

    Vollum Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Dong Wang

    Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Gregory Scherrer

    Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. Tianyi Mao

    Vollum Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, United States
    For correspondence
    mao@ohsu.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3532-8319

Funding

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS081071)

  • Tianyi Mao

New York Stem Cell Foundation

  • Gregory Scherrer

National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA042779)

  • William T Birdsong

National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA044481)

  • Gregory Scherrer

National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01NS106301)

  • Gregory Scherrer

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS104944)

  • Tianyi Mao

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (U01NS094247)

  • Tianyi Mao

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All procedures were approved by Oregon Health & Science University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and all experiments were performed strictly according the approved protocols. IACUC protocol IP00000955, and Institutional Biosafety Committee protocol IBC-10-40.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Olivier J Manzoni, Aix-Marseille University, INSERM, INMED, France

Publication history

  1. Received: January 14, 2019
  2. Accepted: May 15, 2019
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: May 17, 2019 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: May 29, 2019 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2019, Birdsong et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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