Exploring the Potential of Glia for Regulating Clinically Relevant Opiod Actions

最近发现，神经胶质细胞在反复接触吗啡后变得越来越活跃，而这种神经胶质细胞的激活反过来又调节了吗啡的作用。这一发现最初是在研究吗啡对脊髓疼痛抑制作用的背景下发现的。神经胶质可能在决定阿片类药物（如吗啡）的作用方面具有根本的重要意义，这一可能性是新颖且重要的。正因为如此，我们建议探索神经胶质是否也可能深刻地改变吗啡在大脑中的作用。我们相信，神经胶质将被证明有力地参与了目前被认为纯粹是由于阿片类物质对神经元的影响而产生的几种现象；也就是依赖/退缩，奖励与厌恶。如果这是真的，那么它将提供证据，证明神经胶质不仅在调节阿片类药物的疼痛抑制作用中起关键作用，而且在

It has recently been discovered that glia become progressively more activated upon repeated exposure to morphine, & that this glial activation, in turn, modulates morphine's effects. This discovery was originally made in the context of studying the pain suppressive effects of morphine in spinal cord. The possibility that glia may be fundamentally important in determining the effects of opioids such as morphine is novel & important in its implications. Because of this, we propose to explore whether glia may profoundly alter the effects of repeated morphine in brain, as well. We believe that glia will prove to be powerfully involved in several phenomena currently thought to arise purely as a result of opioid effects on neurons; that is, dependence/withdrawal, reward & aversion. If this were true, it would provide evidence that glia are critically involved, not only in modulating the pain-suppressive effects of opioids, but also in