After GM1 ganglioside treatment of sensory neurons naloxone paradoxically prolongs the action potential but still antagonizes opioid inhibition

SM Crain and KF Shen

Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University, Bronx, New York.

Low (nanomolar) concentrations of opioid agonists prolong the calcium- dependent component of the action potential duration (APD) of many dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons, whereas higher (micromolar) levels shorten the APD. Both effects are blocked by naloxone (1-10 nM). Opioid- induced APD prolongation appears to be mediated by excitatory opioid receptors that are positively coupled via a cholera toxin-A-sensitive Gs protein to adenylate cyclase/cyclic AMP-dependent ion conductances, whereas opioid-induced APD shortening is mediated by inhibitory receptors linked via pertussis toxin-sensitive Gi/Go proteins. Cholera toxin-B subunit, which binds to GM1 ganglioside, also selectively blocks opioid-induced APD prolongation. After brief treatment with GM1 ganglioside, the opioid agonists, dynorphin (1-13) or morphine, prolong the APD at femtomolar vs. the usual nanomolar concentrations, whereas no significant alterations were observed in the sensitivity of these GM1-treated cells to opioid inhibitory effects elicited by higher opioid concentrations. The present study shows that the opioid antagonists, naloxone or diprenorphine (1-30 nM), did not alter the APD of naive DRG neurons. In contrast, after GM1 treatment (1 microM, greater than 10 min), both opioid antagonists (but not (+)naloxone) unexpectedly prolonged the APD of most of the GM1-treated cells, but still continued to antagonize opioid-induced APD shortening. These results suggest that the supersensitivity of GM1-treated DRG neurons to the excitatory effects of opioid agonists and antagonists is due primarily to a remarkably increased efficacy of excitatory Gs-coupled opioid receptor functions, similar to the opioid excitatory supersensitivity that we have recently observed in chronic opioid- treated DRG neurons.

Volume 260, Issue 1, pp. 182-186, 01/01/1992
Copyright © 1992 by American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

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