Department of Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2023 Dec;240(12):2459-2482. doi: 10.1007/s00213-023-06477-6. Epub 2023 Oct 19.
Opioid use results in thousands of overdose deaths each year. To address this crisis, we need a better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms that drive opioid abuse. The noninvasive imaging tools positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) can be used to identify how brain activity responds to acute opioid exposure and adapts to chronic drug treatment. These techniques can be performed in humans and animal models, and brain networks identified in animals closely map to the human brain. Animal models have the advantage of being able to systematically examine the independent effects of opioid exposure in a controlled environment accounting for the complex factors that drive opioid misuse in humans. This review synthesizes literature that utilized noninvasive neuroimaging tools (PET, fMRI, and MEMRI) measuring brain activity correlates in animals to understand the neurobiological consequences of exposure to abused opioids. A PubMed search in September 2023 identified 25 publications. These manuscripts were divided into 4 categories based on the route and duration of drug exposure (acute/chronic, active/passive administration). Within each category, the results were generally consistent across drug and imaging protocols. These papers cover a 20-year range and highlight the advancements in neuroimaging methodology during that time. These advances have enabled researchers to achieve greater resolution of brain regions altered by opioid exposure and to identify patterns of brain activation across regions (i.e., functional connectivity) and within subregions of structures. After describing the existing literature, we suggest areas where additional research is needed.
阿片类药物的使用导致每年有成千上万的过量死亡。为了解决这一危机，我们需要更好地了解驱动阿片类药物滥用的神经生物学机制。非侵入性成像工具正电子发射断层扫描（PET）、功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和锰增强磁共振成像（MEMRI）可用于确定大脑活动如何对急性阿片类药物暴露做出反应，并适应慢性药物治疗。这些技术可在人类和动物模型中进行，并且在动物中确定的大脑网络与人类大脑密切对应。动物模型的优势在于能够在受控环境中系统地检查阿片类药物暴露的独立影响，同时考虑到驱动人类阿片类药物滥用的复杂因素。本综述综合了利用非侵入性神经影像学工具（PET、fMRI 和 MEMRI）测量动物大脑活动相关性的文献，以了解滥用阿片类药物暴露的神经生物学后果。2023 年 9 月在 PubMed 上进行了搜索，确定了 25 篇出版物。这些手稿根据药物暴露的途径和持续时间（急性/慢性，主动/被动给药）分为 4 类。在每种类别中，结果在药物和成像方案上通常是一致的。这些论文涵盖了 20 年的范围，突出了那段时间神经影像学方法的进步。这些进展使研究人员能够实现对受阿片类药物暴露改变的大脑区域的更高分辨率，并确定跨区域（即功能连接）和结构内亚区的大脑激活模式。在描述现有文献之后，我们建议需要进一步研究的领域。
