Interconverting ja and 6 forms of the opiate receptor in rat striatal patches ( Communicated by Edward V. Evarts, April 29, 1981 ABSTRACT The binding of a radiolabeled "l receptor" prototype opiate, dihydromorphine (H2morphine), and the binding of a "8 receptor" prototype, enkephalin (D-Enk), to slide-mounted rat caudate slices were simultaneously compared quantitatively and visualized by autoradiography. Generally, DEnk bound to opiate receptors distributed evenly throughout the entire striatum (type 2 pattern), whereas H2morphine labeled discrete islands or patches of receptors (type 1 pattern). In the presence of Mn2+ (3 mM) or other divalent cations, however, Na+ and GTP at 5LC caused an increase in D-Enk binding at the expense of H2morphine binding at striatal opiate receptor patches. Thus, these conditions shifted D-Enk binding from an even pattern to one that included both an even and patchy distribution. These incubation conditions not only promoted D-Enk binding to striatal patches but also enabled the opiate receptor to regulate adenylate cyclase with the same (P < 0.01) ligand selectivity pattern as that obtained by the displacement of D-Enk binding. The relative affinity of opiate receptors in striatal patches for opiate peptides, naloxone, and morphine appears to be a function of incubation conditions and coupling to adenylate cyclase and is not indicative ofdistinctly different opiate receptors. We postulate a three-state allosteric model consisting of # agonist-, it antagonist-, and adenylate cyclase-coupled 8-agonist-preferring states, whose equilibrium may be regulated by a sulfhydryl group mechanism. After the discovery ofthe benzomorphan "opiates" (1), multiple opiate receptors were invoked to explain the qualitative differences these drugs produced (2). Later, Kosterlitz documented a dramatic difference between the ",u receptors" of the guinea pig ileum (where morphine is pharmacologically more potent than opiate peptides) and the "8 receptors" of the vas deferens (where the opposite rank order ofpotency is apparent) (3). The ,u-receptor-like rank order of potency of opiates in displacing[3H]naloxone binding from brain membranes correlates quite precisely with their ability to elicit "analgesia" in rodents (4,5) as well as to suppress guinea pig ileal contractions (6), while the 8-receptor-like rank order ofdisplacement of3H-labeled opiate peptide binding correlates with the suppression of mouse vas deferens contractions (3, 7).It has been previously reported that GTP inhibits "type 1" opiate binding, which has a ,-receptor-like ligand selectivity pattern (8, 9) and a highly discrete localization in brain when visualized autoradiographically (10). By contrast, "type 2" binding is more sensitive to displacement by peptides than by alkaloids (8, 9), has a much more diffuse brain distribution (11), and is more resistant to GTP inhibition. Rat striatum shows this distinct difference in type 1 and type 2 labeling pattern (12). We now report that we can alter the ligand selectivity pattern of GT...