A New Target for Alcoholism Treatment: Kappa Opioid Receptors
Reports new study in Biological Psychiatry
Philadelphia, PA, May 22, 2014 /3BL Media/ – The list of brain receptor targets for opiates reads like a fraternity: Mu Delta Kappa. The mu opioid receptor is the primary target for morphine and endogenous opioids like endorphin, whereas the delta opioid receptor shows the highest affinity for endogenous enkephalins. The kappa opioid receptor (KOR) is very interesting, but the least understood of the opiate receptor family.
Until now, the mu opioid receptor received the most attention in alcoholism research. Naltrexone, a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of alcoholism, acts by blocking opiate action at brain receptors and is most potent at the mu opioid receptor. In addition, research has suggested that a variant of the gene that codes for the mu opioid receptor (OPRM1) may be associated with the risk for alcoholism and the response to naltrexone treatment.
However, naltrexone also acts at the kappa opioid receptor and it has not been clear whether this effect of naltrexone is relevant to alcoholism treatment.
A growing body of research in animals implicates the KOR in alcoholism. Stimulation of the KOR, which occurs with alcohol intake, is thought to produce unpleasant and aversive effects. This receptor is hypothesized to play a role in alcohol dependence, at least in part, by promoting negative reinforcement processes. In other words, the theory postulates that during development of alcohol dependence, the KOR system becomes overstimulated, producing dysphoria and anhedonia, which then leads to further alcohol seeking and escalation of alcohol intake that serves to self-medicate those negative symptoms.
A new study in Biological Psychiatry, led by Dr. Brendan Walker at Washington State University, used a rat model of alcohol dependence to directly investigate the KOR system following chronic alcohol exposure and withdrawal.
They found that the KOR system is dysregulated in the amygdala of alcohol-dependent rats, a vital brain region with many functions, including regulation of emotional behavior and decision-making. Chronic alcohol consumption is known to cause neuroadaptations in the amygdala. In this study specifically, they found increased dynorphin A and increased KOR signaling in the amygdala of alcohol-dependent rats.
When the rats were in acute alcohol withdrawal, the researchers administered different drugs, each of which target the KOR system in precise ways, directly into the amygdala. Using this site-specific antagonism, they observed that alcohol dependence-related KOR dysregulation directly contributes to the excessive alcohol consumption that occurs during withdrawal.
“These data provide important new support for the hypothesis that kappa opioid receptor blockers might play a role in the treatment of alcoholism,” said Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. “This study suggests that one role might be to prevent a relapse to alcohol use among patients recently withdrawn from alcohol.”
“This dataset demonstrates the extensive nature of the neuroadaptations the brain undergoes when chronically exposed to alcohol. The implications of these results are far reaching and should help guide pharmacotherapeutic development efforts for the treatment of alcohol use disorders,” said Walker. “Pharmacological compounds that alleviate the negative emotional / mood states that accompany alcohol withdrawal, by attenuating the excessive signaling in the dynorphin / kappa-opioid receptor system, should result in enhanced treatment compliance and facilitate the transition away from alcohol dependence.”
Additional extensive research will be necessary to identify and test the effectiveness of specific drugs that act on the KOR system, but these findings provide researchers with a potentially successful path forward to developing new drugs for the treatment of alcoholism.
The article is “The One-Two Punch of Alcoholism: Role of Central Amygdala Dynorphins/Kappa-Opioid Receptors” by Jessica L. Kissler, Sunil Sirohi, Daniel J. Reis, Heiko T. Jansen, Raymond M. Quock, Daniel G. Smith, and Brendan M. Walker (doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.03.014). The article appears in Biological Psychiatry, Volume 75, Issue 10 (May 15, 2014), published by Elsevier.
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Notes for editors
Full text of the article is available to credentialed journalists upon request; contact Rhiannon Bugno at +1 214 648 0880 or Biol.Psych@utsouthwestern.edu. Journalists wishing to interview the authors may contact Brendan M. Walker at +1 509 335 8526 or brendan.walker@wsu.edu.
The authors’ affiliations, and disclosures of financial and conflicts of interests are available in the article.
John H. Krystal, M.D., is Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, Chief of Psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and a research psychiatrist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. His disclosures of financial and conflicts of interests are available here.
About Biological Psychiatry
Biological Psychiatry is the official journal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, whose purpose is to promote excellence in scientific research and education in fields that investigate the nature, causes, mechanisms and treatments of disorders of thought, emotion, or behavior. In accord with this mission, this peer-reviewed, rapid-publication, international journal publishes both basic and clinical contributions from all disciplines and research areas relevant to the pathophysiology and treatment of major psychiatric disorders.
The journal publishes novel results of original research which represent an important new lead or significant impact on the field, particularly those addressing genetic and environmental risk factors, neural circuitry and neurochemistry, and important new therapeutic approaches. Reviews and commentaries that focus on topics of current research and interest are also encouraged.
Biological Psychiatry is one of the most selective and highly cited journals in the field of psychiatric neuroscience. It is ranked 4th out of 135 Psychiatry titles and 13th out of 251 Neurosciences titles in the Journal Citations Reports® published by Thomson Reuters. The 2012 Impact Factor score for Biological Psychiatry is 9.247.
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