Circuit-selective pharmacological targeting of prefrontal cortex-projecting locus coeruleus neurons drives antinociception

Selective manipulation of neural circuits using optogenetics and chemogenetics holds great translational potential but requires genetic access to neurons. Here, we demonstrate a general framework for identifying genetic-tool-independent, pharmacological strategies for neural-circuit-selective modulation. We developed an economically accessible calcium-imaging-based approach for large-scale pharmacological scans of endogenous receptor-mediated neural activity. As a test bed for this approach, we used the mouse locus coeruleus due to the combination of its widespread, modular efferent neural circuitry and its wide variety of endogenously expressed G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Using machine-learning-based action potential deconvolution and retrograde tracing, we identified an agonist cocktail that selectively inhibits medial prefrontal cortex-projecting locus coeruleus neurons. In vivo, this cocktail produces synergistic antinociception, consistent with selective pharmacological blunting of this neural circuit. This framework has broad utility for selective targeting of other neural circuits under different physiological and pathological states, facilitating non-genetic translational applications arising from cell-type-selective discoveries.