Figure 5. Transcriptional evidence of the activation of GR signaling in individuals with histories of opioid dependence.
Gene expression was profiled from the CeA in opioid-dependent individuals and unaffected controls by RNA sequencing. Demographic data are shown in Table S5. A representative coronal brain section of the human CeA is shown in Figure S15. We used the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) algorithm [33], a computational method that determines whether a gene set shows significant concordant differential expression between two conditions. The gene expression signature in humans with a history of opioid dependence vs. unaffected control individuals showed significant enrichement of the WP_GLUCOCORTICOID_RECEPTOR_PATHWAY gene set from the Broad Institute’s MSigDB database [58], indicating transcriptional adaptations of GR signaling in the amygdala in humans with OUD.