A single dose of clonidine developed tolerance to its analgesic effect. The tolerance reached its peak acutely on the 2nd day and lasted more than 5 days. Neither the analgesic effect nor the development of tolerance was modified by the pretreatment with naloxone. On the 2nd day, clonidine tolerant animals were also tolerant to morphine, but morphine tolerant animals, after a single dose of mor...

1. Our previous work has demonstrated that exogenously administered orphanin FQ (OFQ) antagonizes morphine analgesia and electroacupuncture analgesia (EAA) in the brain and potentiates morphine analgesia and EAA in the spinal cord of the rat. In the present study we evaluated the role of endogenously released OFQ in the development of tolerance to morphine and electroacupuncture (EA) and the an...

A series of N,N'-disubstituted-2-nitroethene-1,1-diamine and N,N'-disubstituted- N''-cyanoguanidine derivatives were prepared and evaluated for in vivo analgesic activity. The blood brain barrier (BBB) VolSurf model was used to predict the BBB permeation profiles of our synthesized compounds. Some compounds show both remarkable analgesic activity and good BBB permeation profiles, and these comp...

The tolerance and dependence after chronic medication with morphine are thought to be representative models for studying the plasticity, including the remodeling of neuronal networks. To test the hypothesis that changes in neuronal plasticity observed in opioid tolerance or dependence are derived from increased activity of the anti-opioid nociceptin system, the effects of chronic treatments wit...

Adjuvant drugs that attenuate or inhibit the development of tolerance to morphine may lead to improved management of pain in chronic diseases such as cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate effect of fluoxetine, a specific 5-HT (5-hydroxytryptamine, serotonin) reuptake inhibitor, on tolerance induced to the analgesic effect of morphine in mice with skin cancer. The study was carried ou...

The present experiments examined the role of spinal proinflammatory cytokines [interleukin-1beta (IL-1)] and chemokines (fractalkine) in acute analgesia and in the development of analgesic tolerance, thermal hyperalgesia, and tactile allodynia in response to chronic intrathecal morphine. Chronic (5 d), but not acute (1 d), intrathecal morphine was associated with a rapid increase in proinflamma...

The sweet taste of sucrose acts as an analgesic, whereas the taste of a bitter substance decreases pain tolerance. The present experiment explores the analgesic effect of a complex taste and asks how adding cocoa, a substance often associated with sweet foods but that has a bitter taste, to a sucrose solution affects cold pain tolerance. The 24 male participants were exposed to Cold Pressor Tes...

OBJECTIVE Dependence and tolerance are major restricting factors in the clinical use of opioid analgesics. In the present study, the effects of thymoquinone, the major constituent of Nigella sativa seeds, on morphine dependence and tolerance were investigated in mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS Male adult NMRI mice were made tolerant and dependent by repeated injections of morphine (50, 50, and 75...

The signaling molecule RGS9-2 is a potent modulator of G-protein-coupled receptor function in striatum. Our earlier work revealed a critical role for RGS9-2 in the actions of the μ-opioid receptor (MOR) agonist morphine. In this study, we demonstrate that RGS9-2 may act as a positive or negative modulator of MOR-mediated behavioral responses in mice depending on the agonist administered. Parall...

Repeated and long-term administration of opioids is often accompanied by the initiation of opioid-induced analgesic tolerance and hyperalgesia in chronic pain patients. Our previous studies showed that repeated intrathecal morphine injection activated the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) in spinal dorsal horn neurons and that blocking this activation prevented the initiation of ...