Congratulations to Eloise Kuijer on publication of the results of her electrophysiological studies investigating the function and interplay between kappa opioid receptors (KOPrs) and mu opioid receptors (MOPrs) in single neurons in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN). The data suggest that the balance of activation of KOPrs and MOPrs in the PVN plays a critical role in integrating stress- and reward-related information. Imbalances in stress- and reward-signals have been implicated in psychopathologies such as anxiety and drug addiction.
The work was funded by a PhD studentship to Eloise Kuijer by the University of Bath and DevelRx Ltd. Our two Directors, David Heal and Sharon Smith were the industrial supervisors of the research conducted under this PhD project. Academic supervisors were Sarah Bailey, Susan Wonnacott and Chris Bailey, Department of Life Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, UK. Eloise is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA.
Full details of the paper:
E.J. Kuijer, S.J. Bailey, D.J. Heal, S. Smith, S. Wonnacott, C.P. Bailey. Electrophysiological analysis of paraventricular thalamic neurons co-expressing kappa and mu opioid receptors, Neuropharmacology, Volume 272, 2025,110407, ISSN 0028-3908.
The full article can be read by clicking here