New Study Aims to Find Medications for Opioid Use Disorder

Opioid use disorder and overdose deaths are a major public health crisis in the United States, for which treatments remain inadequate for many patients, resulting in a high rate of relapse following detoxification. GLP-1 receptor agonists found to play a vital role in opioid reinforcement and analgesic responses. GLP-1 receptor agonist Exendin-4 reduced oxycodone self-administration and the reinstatement of oxycodone-seeking behavior, according to a study done using recently established models of opioid-taking and -seeking behaviors in rats.

"Collectively, these findings highlight a novel role for GLP-1 receptors in opioid mediated behaviors and suggest that central GLP-1 receptors could serve as targets for novel medications aimed at treating opioid use disorder without affecting opioid-induced analgesic responses," said Yafang Zhang, a post-doctoral fellow at Penn Nursing and lead investigator of the study.

The study, "Activation of GLP-1 Receptors Attenuates Oxycodone Taking and Seeking Without Compromising the Antinociceptive Effects of Oxycodone in Rats" has been published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

Co-authors of the article include Michelle W. Kahng, Jaclynn A. Elkind and Vanessa R. Weir, all of Penn Nursing; and Nicole S. Hernandez and Lauren M. Stein, both of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Senior author Heath D. Schmidt, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Nursing in Penn Nursing's Department of Biobehavioral Health and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry in Penn's Perelman School of Medicine.

Source-Eurekalert