Why is neuroimmunopharmacology crucial for the future of addiction research?

ABSTRACT: A major development in drug addiction research in recent years has been the discovery that immune signaling within the central nervous system contributes significantly to mesolimbic dopamine reward signaling induced by drugs of abuse, and hence is involved in the presentation of reward behaviors. Additionally, in the case of opioids, these hypotheses have advanced through to the discovery of the novel site of opioid action at the innate immune pattern recognition receptor Toll-like receptor 4 as the necessary triggering event that engages this reward facilitating central immune signaling. Thus, the hypothesis of major proinflammatory contributions to drug abuse was born. This review will examine these key discoveries, but also address several key lingering questions of how central immune s

SUBMITTER: Hutchinson MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3858520 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature