The transcriptional landscape of the opioid use disorder-related placenta

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is implicated in major pregnancy-associated complications such as fetal growth restriction. Whether or not opioids directly impact placental development and function remains unclear. We sought to examine the impact of OUD on placental gene expression landscape. Term placental ribonucleic acid high-throughput sequencing (RNAseq) was conducted using our retrospective cohorts of pregnant people with OUD vs controls, both cohorts with uncomplicated pregnancies. Through bioinformatic analysis of RNAseq, we identified differentially expressed long RNAs in placentas from the OUD patients compared to controls. This study illuminates prelude to the placental gene expression affected in pregnant people with OUD and crafts the framework for future mechanistic research.