bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
September 6, 2026
Adam Dawoud, Achla Gupta, Ivone Gomes et al.
preprint
Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) continues to be a pressing public health crisis, marked by high relapse rates and limited treatment options. Ketamine, a non-competitive N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, has emerged as a promising therapeutic for numerous psychiatric illnesses due to its robust antidepressant properties and glutamate-mediated synaptic plasticity. However, ketamine's...
Molecular Pharmacology
October 17, 2024
Ivone Gomes, Achla Gupta, Elyssa B Margolis et al.
21 citations
Ketamine is a glutamate receptor antagonist that was developed over 50 years ago as an anesthetic agent. At subanesthetic doses, ketamine and some metabolites are analgesics and fast-acting antidepressants, presumably through targets other than glutamate receptors. We tested ketamine and its metabolites for activity as allosteric modulators of opioid receptors expressed as recombinant receptors...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
May 24, 2016
Achla Gupta, Ivone Gomes, Erin N Bobeck et al.
Among the opioid receptors, the κ-opioid receptor (κOR) has been gaining considerable attention as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of complex CNS disorders including depression, visceral pain, and cocaine addiction. With an interest in discovering novel ligands targeting κOR, we searched natural products for unusual scaffolds and identified collybolide (Colly), a nonnitrogenous...
Neuropharmacology
November 1, 2014
Bronwyn M Kivell, Zeljko Uzelac, Santhanalakshmi Sundaramurthy et al.
Salvinorin A (SalA), a selective κ-opioid receptor (KOR) agonist, produces dysphoria and pro-depressant like effects. These actions have been attributed to inhibition of striatal dopamine release. The dopamine transporter (DAT) regulates dopamine transmission via uptake of released neurotransmitter. KORs are apposed to DAT in dopamine nerve terminals suggesting an additional target by which...
European Neuropsychopharmacology
November 2008
Maria Ellgren, A Artmann, O Tkalych et al.
Adolescence is a critical phase of active brain development often characterized by the initiation of marijuana (Cannabis sativa) use. Limited information is known regarding the endogenous cannabinoid system of the adolescent brain as well as related neurotransmitters that appear sensitive to cannabis exposure. We recently observed that adult rats pre-exposed to Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol...