It is now well accepted that endogenous morphine is present in animals, both in invertebrates and vertebrates. It is a key signaling molecule that plays an important role in downregulating physiological responses, such as those in the immune system, including immune elements in the CNS. It has been demonstrated that a specific mu-opiate-receptor subtype, mu3, mediates these downregulatory effects through release of NO. This article examines morphine as an endogenous signaling molecule, in terms of its role in neural and immune regulation.

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Integrins play pivotal roles in supporting shear- and mechanical-stress-resistant cell adhesion and migration. These functions require the integrity of the short beta subunit cytoplasmic domains, which contain multiple, highly conserved tyrosine-based endocytic signals, typically found in receptors undergoing regulated, clathrin-dependent endocytosis. We hypothesized that these sequences may control surface integrin dynamics in statically adherent and/or locomoting cells via regulated internalization and polarized recycling of the receptors. By using site-directed mutagenesis and ectopic expression of the alphaL/beta2 integrin in Chinese hamster ovary cells, we found that Y735 in the membrane-proximal YRRF sequence is selectively required for recycling of spontaneously internalized receptors to the cell surface and to growth factor-induced membrane ruffles. Disruption of this motif by non-conservative substitutions has no effect on the receptor's adhesive function, but diverts internalized integrins from a recycling compartment into a degradative pathway. Conversely, the non-conservative F754A substitution in the membrane-proximal NPLF sequence abrogates ligand-dependent adhesion and spreading without affecting receptor recycling. Both of these mutants display a severe impairment in ligand-supported migration, suggesting the existence in integrin cytoplasmic domains of independent signals regulating apparently unrelated functions that are required to sustain cell migration over specific ligands.

Systemic administration of morphine induced a hyperalgesic response in the hot plate test, at an extremely low dose (1-10 lg/kg). We have examined in vivo whether morphine, at an extremely low dose, induces acute central hypernociception following activation of the opioid receptor-mediated PLC/PKC inositol-lipid signaling pathway. The PLC inhibitor U73122 and the PKC blocker, calphostin C, dose dependently prevented the thermal hypernociception induced by morphine. This effect was also prevented by pretreatment with aODN against PLCb 3 at 2 nmol/mouse and PKCc at 2-3 nmol/mouse. Low dose morphine hyperalgesia was dose dependently reversed by selective NMDA antagonist MK801 and ketamine. This study demonstrates the presence of a nociceptive PLCb 3 /PKCc/NMDA pathway stimulated by low concentrations of morphine, through lOR 1 receptor, in mouse brain. This signaling pathway appears to play an opposing role in morphine analgesia. When mice were treated with a morphine analgesic dose (7 mg/kg), the downregulation of PLCb 3 or PKCc at the same aODN doses used for the prevention of the hyperalgesic effect induced, respectively, a 46% and 67% potentiation in analgesic response. Experimental and clinical studies suggest that opioid may activate pronociceptive systems, leading to pain hypersensitivity and short-term tolerance, a phenomenon encountered in postoperative pain management by acute opioid administration. The clinical management of pain by morphine may be revisited in light of the identification of the signaling molecules of the hyperalgesic pathway. Ó

SummaryAn opioid is a chemical that binds to opioid receptors, which are widely distributed in the central and peripheral nervous system and gastrointestinal tract. The different effects elicited by activation of these receptors are due to their specific neuronal and extraneuronal distribution. The painkiller effect of opioids is induced by the synergy of the two events, namely reduction of pain threshold and emotional detachment from pain. The opioid effects transcending analgesia include sedation, respiratory depression, constipation and a strong sense of euphoria. There are opioid-like substances endogenously produced by the body. Naturally occurring peptides, called enkephalins, have opioid-like activities but are not derived from opium and exert opioid-like effects by interacting with opioid receptors on cell membranes. Yet, animals do contain the same morphine precursors and metabolites as opium poppy and are able to synthesize endogenous morphine alkaloid. Experimental and clinical studies show that opioids, at doses comparable to those of endogenous opioids, can activate pronociceptive systems, leading to pain hypersensitivity and short-term tolerance, a phenomenon encountered in postoperative pain management by acute opioid administration. Whether endogenous opioids play a role in the acute pain necessary to the survival of the individual, remains an open question. KEY WORDS: opioids; morphine; analgesia; pain. Pert and Snyder were able to identify for the first time the bond between radioactive opioids and receptors in a mixture of rodent brain and distinguish specific opioid-receptor interactions from non-specific binding between opioids and brain membranes (1). These researchers investigated the molecular structures nearby the recognition site in the same brain membrane, to identify the second messenger that could convert the information related to the recognition of the receptor by the opioid into changes in the cell function. This second messenger was established as the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) whose concentration levels are governed by an enzymatic machinery that uses the sodium ion. When opioid agonists bind to the proper receptor, a change occurs in the key interactions that sodium has with the apparatus of cAMP. Obviously, antagonists bind with equal affinity to the receptor but do not cause changes although they are able to reverse the effects of opioids (1). The opioids exert their lethal effect by depressing respiration. Patients in overdose may return to normal conditions even if they are in a deep and presumably irreversible coma, when subjected to an injection of a small amount of intravenous naloxone, an opiate antagonist able to remove all the molecules by their respective opiate receptors (1). The discovery that opioids were acting through specific receptors, inducing changes in the cAMP, was not sufficient to clarify why they abolish pain and give a feeling of well-being and sometimes euphoria. The step forward was taken when opiate receptors were localized in the brai...