Ream Al-Hasani, an associate professor in anesthesiology at WashU Medicine, has received a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how exposure to opioids before birth affects long-term brain development and behavior.
Babies exposed to opioids in the womb can have trouble with memory, behavior and social skills throughout their lives. Using mouse models, the researchers will study how exposure to the opioid oxycodone during pregnancy impacts long-term neurodevelopment in offspring. They also will compare how two standard treatment approaches, one for opioid use disorder in the mother and the other for withdrawal symptoms in the offspring, influence long-term outcomes.
In opioid maintenance therapy, pregnant animals receive a controlled treatment using an opioid medication such as methadone or buprenorphine to reduce cravings for oxycodone. In opioid withdrawal mitigation, newborn mice receive safe doses of an opioid medication such as methadone, morphine or buprenorphine soon after birth to ease withdrawal.
Al-Hasani will work with WashU Medicine researchers Joel R. Garbow, a professor of radiology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, and Susan Maloney, an associate professor of psychiatry, to track the learning, emotions, social behavior and pain sensitivity of the young mice as they develop. The team will use MRI scans of the mice to see how their brains change in size and structure. They also will study specific brain circuits involved in reward and addiction to figure out which treatment approach is more beneficial to neurodevelopmental outcomes.
"Understanding the long-term effects of oxycodone exposure, along with opioid maintenance therapy and withdrawal mitigation strategies, will help identify treatments and targets that may reduce lasting negative consequences on long-term neurodevelopment," said Al-Hasani, whose lab is part of the Center for Clinical Pharmacology in the Department of Anesthesiology.
