Validation of Neuropeptide FF Receptors as Targets for Methamphetamine Use Disorder

NIH RePORTER · NIH · U18 · $266,775 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Abstract Methamphetamine use disorder is a major public health problem afflicting millions of people. Currently, there are no FDA approved medications and clinical trials aiming to repurpose existing medications for other therapeutic indications have yielded limited efficacy for the treatment of methamphetamine addiction. Given the recent rising trend of methamphetamine abuse, largely as a result of restrictions of opioid prescriptions, there is an urgent need to discover novel targets to facilitate the discovery of new medications for this condition. Literature evidence suggests that the Neuropeptide FF (NPFF) system, a well-established opioid modulatory system, plays a role in alteration of methamphetamine's pharmacological effects including locomotor sensitization and expression of conditioned place preference. These findings corroborate with extensive interactions between central dopaminergic and opioidergic systems. However, studies on roles of the NPFF system in modulating methamphetamine's effects have been limited due to unavailability of suitable tool compounds, particularly ligands with good NPFFR receptor subtype selectivity. Recently, our group and others have discovered new NPFFR ligands, including selective and nonselective agonists and antagonists, which can serve as important tool compounds to study the roles of the NPFF system in methamphetamine's signaling pathways. In this application, we propose to employ these newly developed tool compounds to validate the NPFFRs as potential targets for therapeutic development for methamphetamine use disorder.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10106447
Project number
1U18DA052414-01
Recipient
RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE
Principal Investigator
Thuy Nguyen
Activity code
U18
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2020
Award amount
$266,775
Award type
1
Project period
2020-09-30 → 2022-09-29