Kappa opioids suppress histaminergic itch by inhibiting mediodorsal thalamus-projecting claustrum glutamatergic neurons
Zihan Liu, Xuelian Shu, Zhiwen Wang, Songyu Yao, Chuyuan Hu, Biying Wang, Panwen Liu, Lijin Feng, Yiquan Shen, Hui Xiao, Jing-Gen Liu, Yu-Jun Wang · 2026
Read Kappa opioids suppress histaminergic itch by inhibiting mediodorsal thalamus-projecting claustrum glutamatergic neurons by Zihan Liu, Xuelian Shu, Zhiwen Wang, Songyu Yao, Chuyuan Hu, Biying Wang, Panwen Liu, Lijin Feng, Yiquan Shen, Hui Xiao, Jing-Gen Liu, Yu-Jun Wang (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13564918.txt.
Description
Zihan Liu and co-authors trace, in a 2026 study, a brain pathway that sets how strong an itch feels. Itch driven by histamine is suppressed when kappa opioid receptors are activated. One drug of that class, nalfurafine, is in clinical use, but how it works in the brain was unclear. The team focused on a thin brain region called the claustrum.
Silencing the claustrum's glutamate-using neurons reduced scratching in mice dosed with histamine. Activating them made scratching worse. Those neurons project to the mediodorsal thalamus, and manipulating that pathway changed scratching the same way. The neurons are rich in kappa opioid receptors. The clinical drug quieted their firing, and when the receptors were knocked down in those cells, the drug lost its effect. The work maps a key itch circuit in the brain.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Zihan Liu, Xuelian Shu, Zhiwen Wang, Songyu Yao, Chuyuan Hu, Biying Wang, Panwen Liu, Lijin Feng, Yiquan Shen, Hui Xiao, Jing-Gen Liu, Yu-Jun Wang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 55 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |