Abstract

Spinal delta opioid receptors have been proposed to mediate antinociception in the rat on the basis of 1) the efficacy of a small number of agonists; 2) the lack of effect of mu-selective antagonists; and 3) the lack of cross-tolerance with mu-selective agonists. However, direct evidence to support or refute this postulate has not been obtained in the rat due to a lack of suitable delta-selective antagonists. The present study characterized the ability of Naltrindole (NTI, 17-cyclopropylmethyl-6,7-dehydro-4,5 alpha-epoxy-3,14-dihydroxy-6,7-2',3'-indolomorphinan), a recently discovered delta-selective antagonist, to antagonize the antinocieption produced by intrathecal (i.t.) administration of the prototypic delta-selective agonist cyclic[D-penicillamine2-D-penicillamine5]enkephalin (DPDPE) or the mu-selective agonists morphine and [D-Ala2,MePhe4,Gly-ol5] enkephalin (DAMGO) in the rat. Intrathecal coadministration of NTI with DPDPE significantly antagonized the increase in tail-flick latency (TFL) and hot-plate latency (HPL) produced by DPDPE. In the absence of NTI, the ED50 values and 95% CL of DPDPE in the tail-flick and hot-plate tests were 2.8 (1.1-4.7) and 19.5 (13.3-33.7) micrograms, respectively. In the presence of 10 micrograms of NTI, the ED50 value of DPDPE in the tail-flick test was unchanged and was increased by 2-fold in the hot-plate test to 35.9 (26.2-60.1) micrograms. In the presence of 30 micrograms of NTI, the ED50 value of DPDPE in the tail-flick test was increased by 5-fold to 14.5 (8.5-24.9) micrograms and its antinociceptive effect in the hot-plate test was antagonized completely.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)