Francesca Felicia Caputi

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that ethanol induces selective epigenetic changes, thus better defining the role of opioid peptides in the ethanol-induced effects in the amygdala complex and providing further evidence of the already proposed possible role for histone deacetylases for addiction treatment.

TL;DR: The pattern of alterations observed for the nociceptin system appears to be consistent with its role of functional antagonism towards the actions of ethanol associated with other opioid peptides, which could help to the understanding of how alcohol differentially affects the opioid systems in the brain.

TL;DR: The present review article aims at presenting and discussing prospectively the most recent data accumulated following these three research pathways on this never-ending story in order to offer the most up-to-date synoptic critical view on such still unresolved and exciting topic.

TL;DR: ELK1 is a potential key transcriptional regulatory factor in striatal disturbances associated with heroin abuse and relevant to genetic mutation of OPRM1.

TL;DR: Investigation of possible changes of gene expression of the dynorphinergic and nociceptinergic system components in the nucleus accumbens and in medial and lateral caudate putamen of rats following chronic subcutaneous infusion of cocaine contributes to better define the role of endogenous pDYN-KOP and pN/OFQ-NOP systems in neuroplasticity mechanisms following chronic cocaine treatment.