Single-cell transcriptomics reveals probiotic reversal of neonatal morphine-induced gene disruptions underlying adolescent pain hypersensitivity

Description

Junyi Tao, Danielle Antoine, Richa Jalodia, Eridania Valdes, Sean Michael Boyles, William Hulme, and Sabita Roy use single-cell sequencing to trace how morphine given to newborn mice echoes into teenage pain wiring. They ask whether a probiotic can muffle the echo. Morphine is routine pain care in neonatal units, but its effects on developing pain pathways worry clinicians. The midbrain, central to pain processing and opioid relief, was their window.

The team sequenced over 107,000 midbrain cells from adolescent mice exposed as newborns to saline, morphine, or morphine plus the probiotic Bifidobacterium infantis. The data revealed gene-expression changes across neurons, astrocytes, and brain immune cells. Morphine turned down developmental HOX genes and turned up signaling and pain pathways. Adding the probiotic in the newborn period largely reversed those disruptions. The authors present the dataset as a map of the effect and a case for gut-targeted protection.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC12696108