Mu opioid receptor mRNA expression, binding, and functional coupling to G-proteins in human epileptic hippocampus

Neuromodulation in Parkinson's disease targeting opioid and cannabinoid receptors, understanding the role of NLRP3 pathway: a novel therapeutic approach

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta, resulting in motor and non-motor symptoms. Although levodopa is the primary medication for PD, its long-term use is associated with complications such as dyskinesia and drug resistance, necessitating novel therapeutic approaches. Recent research has highlighted the potential of targeting opioid and cannabinoid receptors as innovative strategies for PD treatment. Modulating opioid transmission, particularly through activating µ (MOR) and δ (DOR) receptors while inhibiting κ (KOR) receptors, shows promise in preventing motor complications and reducing L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia. Opioids also possess neuroprotective properties and play a role in neuroprotection and seizure control. Similar to this, endocannabinoid signalling via CB1 and CB2 receptors influences the basal ganglia and may contribute to PD pathophysiology, making it a potential therapeutic target. In addition to opioid and cannabinoid receptor targeting, the NLRP3 pathway, implicated in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration, emerges as another potential therapeutic avenue for PD. Recent studies suggest that targeting this pathway holds promise as a therapeutic strategy for PD management. This comprehensive review focuses on neuromodulation and novel therapeutic approaches for PD, specifically highlighting the targeting of opioid and cannabinoid receptors and the NLRP3 pathway. A better understanding of these mechanisms has the potential to enhance the quality of life for PD patients.

Enhancement of morphine-induced antinociception after electroconvulsive shock in mice

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been applied for chronic pain for decades. The amounts of opioids to treat pain are sometimes reduced after a series of ECT. The effect of ECT on morphine-induced analgesia and its mechanism underlying the reduction of morphine requirement has yet to be clarified. Therefore, we administered electroconvulsive shocks (ECS) to mice and investigated the antinociceptive effect of morphine in a hot plate test. We examined the expression level of µ-opioid receptor in the thalami of mice 25 h after administration of ECS compared to the thalami of mice without ECS administration using western blotting. ECS disturbed the development of a decrease in the percentage of maximal possible effect (%MPE), which was observed 24 h after a morphine injection, when ECS was applied 25, 23, 21, and 12 h before the second administration of morphine. We also examined the effect of ECS on the dose-response curve of %MPE to morphine-antinociception. Twenty-five hours after ECS, the dose-response curve was shifted to the left, and the EC50 of morphine given to ECS-pretreated mice decreased by 30.1% compared to the mice that were not pretreated with ECS. We also found that the expression level of µ-opioid receptors was significantly increased after ECS administration. These results confirm previous clinical reports showing that ECT decreased the required dose of opioids in neuropathic pain patients and suggest the hypothesis that this effect of ECT works through the thalamus.

Signaling mechanisms of μ-opioid receptor (MOR) in the hippocampus: disinhibition versus astrocytic glutamate regulation

μ-opioid receptor (MOR) is a class of opioid receptors that is critical for analgesia, reward, and euphoria. MOR is distributed in various brain regions, including the hippocampus, where traditionally, it is believed to be localized mainly at the presynaptic terminals of the GABAergic inhibitory interneurons to exert a strong disinhibitory effect on excitatory pyramidal neurons. However, recent intensive research has uncovered the existence of MOR in hippocampal astrocytes, shedding light on how astrocytic MOR participates in opioid signaling via glia-neuron interaction in the hippocampus. Activation of astrocytic MOR has shown to cause glutamate release from hippocampal astrocytes and increase the excitability of presynaptic axon fibers to enhance the release of glutamate at the Schaffer Collateral-CA1 synapses, thereby, intensifying the synaptic strength and plasticity. This novel mechanism involving astrocytic MOR has been shown to participate in hippocampus-dependent conditioned place preference. Furthermore, the signaling of hippocampal MOR, whose action is sexually dimorphic, is engaged in adult neurogenesis, seizure, and stress-induced memory impairment. In this review, we focus on the two profoundly different hippocampal opioid signaling pathways through either GABAergic interneuronal or astrocytic MOR. We further compare and contrast their molecular and cellular mechanisms and their possible roles in opioid-associated conditioned place preference and other hippocampus-dependent behaviors.

Follow-Up of Peripheral IL-1β and IL-6 and Relation with Apoptotic Death in Drug-Resistant Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Patients Submitted to Surgery

Increasing amounts of evidence support the role of inflammation in epilepsy. This study was done to evaluate serum follow-up of IL-1β and IL-6 levels, as well as their concentration in the neocortex, and the relationship of central inflammation with NF-κB and annexin V in drug-resistant temporal lobe epileptic (DRTLE) patients submitted to surgical treatment. Peripheral and central levels of IL-1β and IL-6were measured by ELISA in 10 DRTLE patients. The sera from patients were taken before surgery, and 12 and 24 months after surgical treatment. The neocortical expression of NF-κB was evaluated by western blotting and annexin V co-localization with synaptophysin by immunohistochemistry. The neocortical tissues from five patients who died by non-neurological causes were used as control. Decreased serum levels of IL-1 and IL-6 were observed after surgery; at this time, 70% of patients were seizure-free. No values of IL-1 and IL-6 were detected in neocortical control tissue, whereas cytokine levels were evidenced in DRTLE. Increased NF-κB neocortex expression was found and the positive annexin V neurons were more obvious in the DRTLE tissue, correlating with IL-6 levels. The follow-up study confirmed that the inflammatory alterations disappeared one year after surgery, when the majority of patients were seizure-free, and the apoptotic death process correlated with inflammation.

Do certain signal transduction mechanisms explain the comorbidity of epilepsy and mood disorders?

It is well known that mood disorders are highly prevalent in patients with epilepsy. Although several studies have aimed to characterize alterations in different types of receptors associated with both disturbances, there is a lack of studies focused on identifying the causes of this comorbidity. Here, we described some changes at the biochemical level involving serotonin, dopamine, and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors as well as signal transduction mechanisms that may explain the coexistence of both epilepsy and mood disorders. Finally, the identification of common pathophysiological mechanisms associated with receptor-receptor interaction (heterodimers) could allow designing new strategies for treatment of patients with epilepsy and comorbid mood disorders.

Stress-induced gastrointestinal motility is responsible for epileptic susceptibility

In order to explain observations linking epileptic EEG patterns (3 Hz spike wave complexes and β-γ activity of 25-40 Hz) and the involuntary slow wave of the gut (3 c/min) and colonic contractile electrical complexes (25-40 c/min), the physiological and pathological electrographic patterns recorded from different anatomical structures were compared. The similarities in shape and pattern provided the basis to hypothesise that these waves exist as a continuum associated with different cell types and that stress induces high-force involuntary tonic contractions and resistance to the segmental rhythmic contractions of the gut's circular muscles. As a consequence, electrographic patterns with a waveform of 3 c/min and 25-40 c/min are organised in the periphery and transmitted to the central nervous system via visceral afferents with the same shape. The electrical interactions between the adjacent neurons of the enteric network, as well as between the interconnected gut/brain neuronal circuits, facilitate synchronisation of neuronal activity by the frequencies of the stress-induced patterns. In this way, the peripherally organised electrographic patterns actively participate in creating epileptic susceptibility with expressed gut symptoms.

Endogenous opiates and behavior: 2012

This paper is the thirty-fifth consecutive installment of the annual review of research concerning the endogenous opioid system. It summarizes papers published during 2012 that studied the behavioral effects of molecular, pharmacological and genetic manipulation of opioid peptides, opioid receptors, opioid agonists and opioid antagonists. The particular topics that continue to be covered include the molecular-biochemical effects and neurochemical localization studies of endogenous opioids and their receptors related to behavior (Section 2), and the roles of these opioid peptides and receptors in pain and analgesia (Section 3); stress and social status (Section 4); tolerance and dependence (Section 5); learning and memory (Section 6); eating and drinking (Section 7); alcohol and drugs of abuse (Section 8); sexual activity and hormones, pregnancy, development and endocrinology (Section 9); mental illness and mood (Section 10); seizures and neurologic disorders (Section 11); electrical-related activity and neurophysiology (Section 12); general activity and locomotion (Section 13); gastrointestinal, renal and hepatic functions (Section 14); cardiovascular responses (Section 15); respiration and thermoregulation (Section 16); and immunological responses (Section 17).

Quantification of opioid receptor availability following spontaneous epileptic seizures: correction of [11C]diprenorphine PET data for the partial-volume effect

Previous positron emission tomography (PET) studies in refractory temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) using the non-selective opioid receptor antagonist [(11)C]diprenorphine (DPN) did not detect any changes in mesial temporal structures, despite known involvement of the hippocampus in seizure generation. Normal binding in smaller hippocampi is suggestive of increased receptor concentration in the remaining grey matter. Correction for partial-volume effect (PVE) has not been used in previous DPN PET studies. Here, we present PVE-corrected DPN-PET data quantifying post-ictal and interictal opioid receptor availability in humans with mTLE. Eight paired datasets of post-ictal and interictal DPN PET scans and eleven test/retest control datasets were available from a previously published study on opioid receptor changes in TLE following seizures (Hammers et al., 2007a). Five of the eight participants with TLE had documented hippocampal sclerosis. Data were re-analyzed using regions of interest and a novel PVE correction method (structural functional synergistic-resolution recovery (SFS-RR); (Shidahara et al., 2012)). Data were denoised, followed by application of SFS-RR, with anatomical information derived via precise anatomical segmentation of the participants' MRI (MAPER; (Heckemann et al., 2010)). [(11)C]diprenorphine volume-of-distribution (VT) was quantified in six regions of interest. Post-ictal increases were observed in the ipsilateral fusiform gyri and lateral temporal pole. A novel finding was a post-ictal increase in [(11)C]DPN VT relative to the interictal state in the ipsilateral parahippocampal gyrus, not observed in uncorrected datasets. As for voxel-based (SPM) analyses, correction for global VT values was essential in order to demonstrate focal post-ictal increases in [(11)C]DPN VT. This study provides further direct human in vivo evidence for changes in opioid receptor availability in TLE following seizures, including changes that were not evident without PVE correction. Denoising, resolution recovery and precise anatomical segmentation can extract valuable information from PET studies that would be missed with conventional post-processing procedures.

Kainic acid-induced seizure activity alters the mRNA expression and G-protein activation of the opioid/nociceptin receptors in the rat brain cortex

The opioid/nociceptin receptors are involved in many neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. Kainic acid (KA) is an analog of the excitatory amino acid transmitter glutamate and the systemic administration of KA induces status epilepticus (SE) in rodents. In this study, we examined the alterations in the G-protein activity and the gene expression levels of mu, kappa, delta opioid and nociceptin receptors (MOPr, KOPr, DOPr and NOPr) as well as PNOC, the precursor polypeptide of nociceptin-OFQ (N/OFQ) in KA-induced seizures in the rat brain cortex. KA was used to create seizures with the dose of 10 mg/kg body weight i.p. Following the KA administration, the rats were observed for 3 h to assess seizure activity. Seizures occurred approximately 45 min after the KA injection. Only rats exhibiting full limbic seizures, forelimb clonus with rearing, were used in this study. All animals were decapitated 4 h after the administration of KA. Our [(35)S]GTPγS binding results showed that there was a significant difference in both the affinity and efficacy particularly one of NOPr stimulation following KA treatment. Slight, but significant increase was observed for MOPr. Moreover PNOC, NOPr and MOPr mRNA levels were increased by KA treatment but there were no significant changes in the levels of DOPr and KOPr mRNAs. These results show that the activities of opioid/nociceptin receptors can be modified by KA-treatment, and MOPr, PNOC and NOPr are the most responsive to KA-induced seizures in the rat brain cortex.

Neurogliaform and Ivy Cells: A Major Family of nNOS Expressing GABAergic Neurons

Neurogliaform and Ivy cells are members of an abundant family of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) expressing GABAergic interneurons found in diverse brain regions. These cells have a defining dense local axonal plexus, and display unique synaptic properties including a biphasic postsynaptic response with both a slow GABA(A) component and a GABA(B) component following even a single action potential. The type of transmission displayed by these cells has been termed "volume transmission," distinct from both tonic and classical synaptic transmission. Electrical connections are also notable in that, unlike other GABAergic cell types, neurogliaform family cells will form gap junctions not only with other neurogliaform cells, but also with non-neurogliaform family GABAergic cells. In this review, we focus on neurogliaform and Ivy cells throughout the hippocampal formation, where recent studies highlight their role in feedforward inhibition, uncover their ability to display a phenomenon called persistent firing, and reveal their modulation by opioids. The unique properties of this family of cells, their abundance, rich connectivity, and modulation by clinically relevant drugs make them an attractive target for future studies in vivo during different behavioral and pharmacological conditions.

Ivy and neurogliaform interneurons are a major target of μ-opioid receptor modulation

μ-Opioid receptors (μORs) are selectively expressed on interneurons in area CA1 of the hippocampus. Fast-spiking, parvalbumin-expressing, basket cells express μORs, but circumstantial evidence suggests that another major, unidentified, GABAergic cell class must also be modulated by μORs. Here we report that the abundant, dendritically targeting, neurogliaform family of cells (Ivy and neurogliaform cells) is a previously unrecognized target of direct modulation by μORs. Ivy and neurogliaform cells are not only numerous but also have unique properties, including promiscuous gap junctions formed with various interneuronal subtypes, volume transmission, and the ability to produce a postsynaptic GABA(B) response after a single presynaptic spike. Using a mouse line expressing green fluorescent protein under the neuropeptide Y promoter, we find that, across all layers of CA1, activation of μORs hyperpolarizes Ivy and neurogliaform cells. Furthermore, paired recordings between synaptically coupled Ivy and pyramidal cells show that Ivy cell terminals are dramatically inhibited by μOR activation. Effects in Ivy and neurogliaform cells are seen at similar concentrations of agonist as those producing inhibition in fast-spiking parvalbumin basket cells. We also report that Ivy cells display the recently described phenomenon of persistent firing, a state of continued firing in the absence of continued input, and that induction of persistent firing is inhibited by μOR activation. Together, these findings identify a major, previously unrecognized, target of μOR modulation. Given the prominence of this cell type in and beyond CA1, as well as its unique role in microcircuitry, opioid modulation of neurogliaform cells has wide implications.