Current Projects

Identify novel psycho-neuro-biological markers predicting vulnerability of nicotine relapse: This project explores the relationships between emotion regulation, stress response biomarkers, and neural activity to predict susceptibility to relapse following nicotine abstinence. It aims to investigate trait-like vulnerability factors and state responses to stress before smoking cessation to predict cravings, abstinence adherence, and smoking cessation intervention response. Our hypothesis suggests that disrupted connectivity between brain regions linked to emotion regulation and enhanced stress-induced qEEG high-frequency oscillations predict relapse vulnerability. Overall, we will assess the predictive value of emotion regulation ability, changes in neural activity in response to stress, alterations in qEEG oscillations due to abstinence, and reciprocal interactions between stress reactivity, emotion regulation, and synchronized neural activity in predicting nicotine relapse vulnerability.

Assessment of Ketamine’s efficacy on Opioid Addiction and Relapse Prediction: This comprehensive study aims to evaluate ketamine’s multifaceted impact on opioid addiction treatment and relapse prevention in opioid use disorder (OUD) patients. We will first assess the efficacy of subanesthetic ketamine doses as an adjunct treatment for opioid addiction to alleviate negative affective behaviors, and extend abstinence periods, expecting measurable positive outcomes within hours of administration. Secondly, our study focuses on identifying stress, psychological, and neurophysiological biomarkers to predict opioid relapse, anticipating correlations between stress system activation, emotional regulation, and improved treatment outcomes, particularly with ketamine. Lastly, our investigation delves into acute ketamine-induced changes in cortical neural activity, particularly high-frequency oscillations, aiming to predict reversal of negative affective behaviors, and sustained opioid abstinence post-ketamine administration, where higher gamma power is expected to correlate positively with ketamine’s therapeutic effects in OUD patients.

Exploring the genetic and molecular underpinning of smoking addiction for the development of new therapeutic strategies: The proposed case-control study (participants that achieved abstinence for at least 6 months after smoking cessation versus participants that did not achieve abstinence) aims to identify novel genetically-supported drug targets for smoking cessation and to correlate/associate changes in those druggable protein targets with: (a) motivation to quit smoking and (b) vulnerability to relapse following abstinence.