Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06519, United States.
Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, United States.
Psychiatry Res. 2023 Dec;330:115586. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115586. Epub 2023 Nov 3.
Rates of opioid-related deaths and overdoses in the United States are at record-high levels. Thus, novel neurobiological targets for the treatment of OUD are greatly needed. Given the close interaction between the endogenous opioid system and the endocannabinoid system (ECS), targeting the ECS may have therapeutic potential in OUD. The various components of the ECS, including cannabinoid receptors, their lipid-derived endogenous ligands (endocannabinoids [eCBs]), and the related enzymes, present potential targets for developing new medications in OUD treatment. The purpose of this paper is to review the clinical and preclinical literature on the dysregulation of the ECS after exposure to opioids. We review the evidence of ECS dysregulation across various study types, exposure protocols, and measurement protocols and summarize the evidence for dysregulation of ECS components at specific brain regions. Preclinical research has shown that opioids disrupt various ECS components that are region-specific. However, the results in the literature are highly heterogenous and sometimes contradictory, possibly due to variety of different methods used. Further research is needed before a confident conclusion could be made on how exposure to opioids can affect ECS components in various brain regions.
美国阿片类药物相关死亡和过量用药的发生率处于历史最高水平。因此,急需寻找治疗 OUD 的新型神经生物学靶点。鉴于内源性阿片系统和内源性大麻素系统 (ECS) 之间的密切相互作用,针对 ECS 可能具有治疗 OUD 的潜力。ECS 的各种成分,包括大麻素受体、其脂质衍生的内源性配体(内源性大麻素 [eCBs])和相关酶,为开发治疗 OUD 的新药提供了潜在的靶点。本文旨在综述接触阿片类药物后 ECS 失调的临床和临床前文献。我们综述了各种研究类型、暴露方案和测量方案中 ECS 失调的证据,并总结了特定脑区 ECS 成分失调的证据。临床前研究表明,阿片类药物会破坏特定脑区的各种 ECS 成分。然而,文献中的结果高度异质,有时甚至相互矛盾,这可能是由于使用了不同的方法。在得出关于接触阿片类药物如何影响各种脑区的 ECS 成分的确切结论之前,还需要进一步的研究。