Fentanyl, one of the most commonly used analgesics in hospitals, is a mu-opioid agonist that has the potential to permanently impair behavior and sensorimotor abilities in rats. However, we do not know whether fentanyl use promotes the development of autism. Fentanyl causes autism-like behavioral changes in young male and female mice, according to an animal study by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, and the University of Pennsylvania. The findings were published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia. Several other studies have demonstrated that N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor dysfunction contributes to autism. Autism is associated with variants in the Grin2a and Grin2b genes, which encode the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunits of GluN2A and GluN2B. Autism also affects the anterior cingulate cortex of the brain. The current study found that fentanyl caused autism-like behaviors in young male and female mice by activating mu-opioid receptors in the brain’s anterior cingulate cortex. Furthermore, these fentanyl-induced autism-like behaviors appear to be caused in part by hypermethylation-induced reduction of Grin2b expression in the anterior cingulate cortex of mice.
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