The current study provides convergent lines of evidence identifying ELK1 disturbances in association with heroin use history and variants of the OPRM1 gene. The findings suggest that repeated activation of MOR, and subsequently the ERK pathway, efficiently controls the availability of ELK1 to regulate striatal transcriptional machinery in a dose-dependent manner. The ELK1 transcription factor has been generally overlooked in the context of addiction, but the current results implicate it as a potential substrate in the pathophysiology of heroin abuse.
