Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Dopamine and Morphine Tolerance

Dopamine Identified as Key Player

Our Mu Opioid Receptor antibody is used to show that blocking dopamine decreases morphine tolerance: Wen-Ling Dai, Feng Xiong, Bing Yan, Zheng-Yu Cao, Wen-Tao Liu, Ji-Hua Liu1, Bo-Yang Yu. Blockade of neuronal dopamine D2 receptor attenuates morphine tolerance in mice spinal cord. Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 38746 (2016). doi:10.1038/srep38746.

Images: (A) Double immunofluorescence staining showed that MOR (green) and D2DR (red) were co-localized in the mice spinal cord (20X magnification). Chronic morphine treatment increased the co-localization of MOR and D2DR in the spinal cord, and D2DR antagonist sulpiride (8 μg/10 μl, i.t.) reduced the increased co-expression of D2DR with MOR (n = 4). (B) Co-IP experiments showed that D2DR could interact with MOR, and the MOR/D2DR interactions were increased in the spinal dorsal horn after chronic morphine treatment for 7 days while D2DR antagonist sulpiride (8 μg/10 μl, i.t.) disrupted the interactions of the MOR/D2DR (n = 3).

Blockade of D2DR in spinal cord can disrupt the interactions between MOR and D2DR to attenuate morphine tolerance. These findings highlight the possibility of a new clinical strategy to prevent morphine antinociceptive tolerance.

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