Publications by authors named "Sarah W Gooding"
Article Synopsis
- Opioid drugs activate the µ-opioid receptor, mimicking natural pain-relieving peptides, but their use is limited due to side effects and the risk of opioid use disorder.
- The study examined how different levels of arrestin-3 recruitment to the µ-opioid receptor in mice affected their drug-seeking behavior, revealing that mice without arrestin-3 showed more compulsive tendencies.
- The findings suggest that opioids activating both G proteins and arrestin-3 could lead to decreased risk of abuse, indicating a potential pathway for improving pain management without increasing addiction risk.
Unlabelled: It is well established that dopamine neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) play a critical role in reward and aversion as well as pathologies including drug dependence and addiction. The distinct effects of acute and chronic opioid exposure have been previously characterized at VTA synapses. Recent work suggests that distinct VTA projections that target the medial and lateral shell of the nucleus accumbens (NAc), may play opposing roles in modulating behavior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOpioid drugs are potent analgesics that mimic the endogenous opioid peptides, endorphins and enkephalins, by activating the μ-opioid receptor. Opioid use is limited by side effects, including significant risk of opioid use disorder. Improvement of the effect/side effect profile of opioid medications is a key pursuit of opioid research, yet there is no consensus on how to achieve this goal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA Balancing Act: Learning from the Past to Build a Future-Focused Opioid Strategy.
Annu Rev Physiol
February 2024
The harmful side effects of opioid drugs such as respiratory depression, tolerance, dependence, and abuse potential have limited the therapeutic utility of opioids for their entire clinical history. However, no previous attempt to develop effective pain drugs that substantially ameliorate these effects has succeeded, and the current opioid epidemic affirms that they are a greater hindrance to the field of pain management than ever. Recent attempts at new opioid development have sought to reduce these side effects by minimizing engagement of the regulatory protein arrestin-3 at the mu-opioid receptor, but there is significant controversy around this approach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Opioid drugs activate the µ-opioid receptor, providing pain relief through endorphins and enkephalins, but their use is complicated by the risk of developing tolerance, leading to overdose and respiratory issues.
- Current research challenges the belief that the harmful side effects of opioids are solely due to arrestin-3 engagement, suggesting it may actually help manage opioid tolerance.
- The study indicates that future opioid development should pursue drugs that engage both G protein and arrestin-3 for a balance of pain relief and fewer side effects, mimicking natural body processes.
Purpose: To compare methods for homogenizing the mouse whole eye or retina for RNA extraction.
Methods: We tested five homogenization techniques for the whole eye and the retina. Two established shearing techniques were a version of the Potter-Elvehjem homogenizer, which uses a plastic pellet pestle in a microfuge tube, and a Dounce homogenizer.