# Opioid control of midline thalamo-cortico-striatal glutamate transmission

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $280,800

## Abstract

Project Summary
Opioids such as morphine are effective at relieving pain but can also be addictive due to their rewarding
properties. Brain areas that include the medial and anterior thalamus, prefrontal and anterior cingulate
cortices, and the dorsomedial striatum and nucleus accumbens are involved in the affective and motivational
aspects of pain perception. Projections from cortical and thalamic regions converge on the striatum providing
two important sources of excitatory innervation to the limbic system and basal ganglia. This proposal will use
viral based gene delivery to express light-gated ion channels in thalamic and cortical brain regions to achieve
selective excitation of thalamo-striatal and cortico-striatal glutamate afferents in the dorsomedial striatum of
mice. Whole cell recordings will be used in brain slices with the goal of understanding the location and
mechanism of opioid receptor action within this medial pain pathway.
The first aim will address the location of μ-opioid receptors (MOPr) in these pathways. The hypothesis is that
the major effect of opioids is to inhibit thalamic projections to the striatum and cortex through
a presynaptic mechanism while the cortico-striatal projections are insensitive to opioids.
Aim 2 will investigate the effect of chronic treatment with the clinically relevant opioids morphine and
fentanyl. These agonists differ substantially in efficacy and the induction of MOPr phosphorylation. Recent
work shows definitively that phosphorylation of MOPr plays a role in trafficking and function measured
postsynaptically but it is not known how or if phosphorylation affects presynaptic function. Wild-type mice and
a newly generated knock-in mouse expressing phosphorylation-deficient MOPr will be acutely and chronically
treated with morphine and fentanyl with the hypothesis that drug-induced MOPr phosphorylation will
lead to a decrease in the efficiency of opioid receptor dependent inhibition of thalamic
glutamate release (receptor tolerance) following chronic opioid treatment. The phosphorylation-
deficient MOPr mouse is therefore expected to show less receptor tolerance than wild type mice.
The results from these aims will describe the location and action of MOPr within these thalamo-cortico-striatal
circuits and determine the receptor- and cellular-level adaptations that result from chronic opioid treatment. A
better understanding of this circuitry may lead to approaches or treatment regimens that better manage the
treatment of pain and limit reinforcing and rewarding properties of opioids.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10063507
- **Project number:** 5R01DA042779-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** William T Birdsong
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $280,800
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-02-01 → 2022-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10063507

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10063507, Opioid control of midline thalamo-cortico-striatal glutamate transmission (5R01DA042779-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10063507. Licensed CC0.

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