Dr. Harvey is the chair of NIDA-IRP Safety committee and has initiated numerous safety initiatives in recent years including “NIDA Laboratory Clean Out Week”, coordinated with DEP to provide additional training on chemical waste handling in laboratories. Congratulations, Dr. Harvey and thank you for all of your hard work! The NIH Mission First Safety Always… [Read More]
Hot Off the Press
Lateral orbitofrontal cortex integrates predictive information across multiple cues to guide behavior
Hot Off the Press – October 2023 Published in Current Biology by Thorsten Kahnt, et al. Summary Predictive cues typically come in bunches and combining their predictions may improve behavior. Yet, we know almost nothing about how people process reward predictions from multiple cues as well as the brain mechanisms that are involved. Our manuscript… [Read More]
Reviews To Read
Targeting corticostriatal transmission for the treatment of cannabinoid use disorder
Reviews To Read – July 2023. Published in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences by lead author Sergi Ferré of the NIDA IRP Integrative Neurobiology Section. It is generally assumed that the reinforcing effects of cannabinoids are related to their capacity to induce striatal dopamine release by targeting cannabinoid receptors in the mesencephalic origin of the dopaminergic… [Read More]
Featured Papers
Alkoxy chain length governs the potency of 2-benzylbenzimidazole ‘nitazene’ opioids associated with human overdose
Featured Paper of the Month – February 2024
Published in Psychopharmacology by Grant Glatfelter and Michael Baumann et al. of the NIDA IRP Designer Drug Research Unit.
Our findings reveal that nitazenes are potent mu-opioid receptor agonists that induce opioid-like effects in mice. Importantly, we show that certain analogs (e.g., isotonitazene, etonitazene) are much more potent than fentanyl, portending serious risk of overdose and other adverse effects in humans who are exposed to the drugs.