Researchers have found that cannabidiol (CBD) may help prevent relapse in heroin addiction, reducing heroin-seeking behavior while normalizing brain changes tied to craving.
The team from the Addiction Institute of Mount Sinai published a new study in the journal Biological Psychiatry, which shows that CBD not only reduced cue-induced heroin-seeking behavior in animals but also corrected specific molecular changes in the brain tied to relapse.
The research focused on the nucleus accumbens, a region linked to reward and drug-seeking behavior. Heroin exposure altered gene expression in both the core and shell of this brain region, with the shell showing the strongest disruptions. CBD treatment normalized several of these heroin-induced changes, particularly in the shell, where the affected genes were connected to extracellular matrix regulation, astrocyte activity, and immune function.
“Heroin-trained animals exhibited high levels of cue-induced heroin-seeking behavior. Importantly, CBD attenuated cue-induced heroin-seeking behaviors”, states the study. “Postmortem RNA-sequencing of the NAcC and NAcS revealed shared transcriptomic alterations the NAc subregions in response to heroin, with a more robust impact of heroin in the NAcS.”
Researchers note that “Though CBD had minimal impact on the heroin-induced perturbations in the NAcC, it normalized components of the transcriptomic signature altered by heroin in both NAc subregions including transcripts that correlated with heroin-seeking behavior. In contrast, CBD normalized a particular subset of NAcS genes that correlated to heroin-seeking behavior. ”
Those genes “were specifically linked to the extracellular matrix, astrocyte function, and their upstream regulators related to immune function.”
The study concludes by stating “These findings underscore the NAc subregional signatures of heroin-induced neurobiological perturbations and provide novel biological targets relevant for CBD’s apparent anti-relapse effects.”
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