UNH researchers uncover a gut-level clue to opioid addiction risk Butyrate-producing microbes may help maintain opioid pain relief and reduce the risk of tolerance
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needed to have the same effectiveness,” says Whistler. espite their wide use and effectiveness, opioid pain medications carry a risk of addiction. Cheryl Whistler, “We demonstrate that administering butyrate, a simple intervention that can be added to the diet, could prevent professor of molecular, cellular, and biomedical sciences, analgesic tolerance to opioids, which is an early step to is investigating why opioid response and addiction opioid addiction.” susceptibility differs between individuals and whether microbes in our guts play a role. She believes the answer Whistler and her team are focusing on gut microbiota, an could help in developing healthcare strategies to reduce important player in a wide range of functions. It is well opioid addiction risks. recognized that opioids disrupt gut microbe balance. Whistler is working with a research team that includes Prior research has suggested that the disruption may Izabella Sall ’25G, who earned her doctorate at UNH contribute to increased tolerance to opioids, lessening in molecular, evolutionary, and systems biology. Their their painkilling effectiveness. Working with mice, Whistler most recent findings, published in the journal Gut and her team delved deeper, fully characterizing their gut Microbes, suggest a possible strategy to help prevent the microbe populations prior to morphine ingestion and how development of opioid tolerance — a condition that can morphine affected them over time. lay the foundation for addiction. In cases in which the drug’s effectiveness waned, “Patients who need pain relief often find that a prescribed the researchers observed that microbiota instability opiate no longer works as well over time, and more is developed more quickly, and the population of beneficial
21 • University of New Hampshire