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Updated: Feb 24, 2026

Investigating Drivers of Antireward in Addiction Behavior with Anatomically Specific Single-Cell Gene Expression Methods
Published on: August 4, 2022
Pharmacoepigenomics of opiates and methadone maintenance treatment: current data and perspectives
Cynthia Marie-Claire1, Clément Jourdaine2, Jean-Pierre Lépine2
1Variabilité de réponse aux psychotropes, INSERMU1144/Faculté de Pharmacie de Paris/Université Paris Descartes/Université ParisDiderot/Université Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France.
Abstract:
Current treatments of opioid addiction include primarily maintenance medications such as methadone. Chronic exposure to opiate and/or long-lasting maintenance treatment induce modulations of gene expression in brain and peripheral tissues. There is increasing evidence that epigenetic modifications underlie these modulations. This review summarizes published results on opioid-induced epigenetic changes in animal models and in patients. The epigenetic modifications observed with other drugs of abuse often used by opiate abusers are also outlined. Specific methadone maintenance treatment induced epigenetic modifications at different treatment stages may be combined with the ones resulting from patients' substance use history. Therefore, research comparing groups of addicts with similar history and substances use disorders but contrasting for well-characterized treatment phenotypes should be encouraged.
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