Lecture 19: Opioids II Flashcards
What drugs are used to manage severe acute pain?
Opioids
Why are Opioids not the best to treat chronic pain?
Because of their side effects
Why are opioids such good drugs at blocking pain?
Because opioid receptors are distributed along the entire neural axis that transmits pain to the brain and processes pain into an experience
What neurons are mu, delta and kappa opioid receptors located on?
Primary and secondary afferents in the skin and spinal cord
How does agonist binding to opioid receptors affect pain transmission?
Agonists binding to opioid receptors inhibit pain transmission from skin to brain
What are nociceptors?
Primary afferent neurons that are specifically tuned to the detection of pain
What do opioid receptors localized in the brainstem (rostroventral medulla) do?
Increase diffuse noxious inhibitory control
Which part of the brain is important in controlling the endogenous pain system?
The rostroventral medulla
What is the diffuse noxious inhibitory control?
The endogenous pain system of the body that dampens the experience of pain
When is the diffuse noxious inhibitory control activated?
When pain fibers are activated in the skin. Basically when there are pain signals being transmitted from the skin to the brain
What is the diffuse noxious inhibitory control comprised of?
Descending excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the medulla that inhibit or activate pain synapses in the spinal cord
What can the excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the diffuse noxious inhibitory control system do?
The can amplify or inhibit the transmission of pain from the primary to secondary afferent
What are the On cells in the diffuse noxious inhibitory control system?
The descending neurons that project from the rostral ventral medulla to the spinal cord
What does activation of the On cells in the diffuse noxious inhibitory control system do?
Amplify pain
What are the On cells in the rostral ventral medulla under the control of?
Neurons that express opioid peptide
What receptors do the on cells of the rostral ventral medulla express?
Mu opioid receptors
What does the release of opioid peptides on the rostral ventral medulla on cells do?
Inhibits the activity of On cells and reduces the signals of nociceptive signals reaching the brain
What is Dopamine involved in?
Motivated behavior and reward
where are dopamine neurons located primarily?
In the ventral tegmental area (VTA)
What are Mu opioid receptors in the VTA located on?
Inhibitory GABAergic interneurons
What do Mu opioid receptors on GABAergic neurons do?
They inhibit activation of GABA neurons which stops them from releasing GABA which is an inhibitory neurotransmitter onto dopamine neurons causing dopamine neurons to produce more dopamine (disinhibition)