The synthetic opioid fentanyl elicited transcriptomic alterations related to viral replication, immune response, and inflammation in vitro.

The US is in the midst of a major drug epidemic fueled in large part by the widespread recreational use of syntheticopioids such as fentanyl. we evaluated the impact of fentanyl using in cell lines that replicate infectious viruses. RNAseq identified a number of hepatocyte genes that were differentially regulated by fentanyl, including those related to apoptosis, the antiviral / interferon response, chemokine signaling, and NFkB signaling. Overall design: Huh7.5 and HepG2 cell lines were exposed to fentanyl or left as untreated controls in duplicate.