Background—Hypothermic myocardial arrest is necessary to complete most cardiac surgery, which limits the success of such operations. Similarly, cold, inhospitable environments limit the survival of warm-blooded animals. Animals have successfully adapted to this challenge through hibernation. Hibernation is an energy-conserving state, now known to be governed by cyclical variation in endogenous ...

Based upon its ability to inhibit opiate receptor binding, a low-molecular-weight substance (600) has been isolated from human plasma by extraction into butanol and ion exchange, molecular sieve, and thin-layer chromatography. When this substance, termed anodynin, is microinjected into rat periaqueductal gray matter, it causes a profound, long-lasting analgesia which is prevented by prior injec...

Addiction to the illicit and prescribed use of opiate is an alarming public health issue. Studies on addictive disorders have demonstrated severe nutritional deficiencies in opiate abusers with behavioral, physiological and cognitive symptoms. Opiate addiction is also link with a significant number of diseases including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and other blood...

AGONISTS AT -OPIATE RECEPTORS are very important clinically in the alleviation of pain. A well known and unwanted side effect is the marked depression of breathing that complicates their clinical administration and is potentially life threatening when opiates are abused. Neuronal -opiate receptors are widespread in the ventrolateral medulla including on neurons in the region of the ventral resp...

The norepinephrine nucleus, locus ceruleus (LC), is activated by diverse stimuli and modulates arousal and behavioral strategies in response to these stimuli through its divergent efferent system. Afferents communicating information to the LC include excitatory amino acids (EAAs), corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), and endogenous opioids acting at mu-opiate receptors. Because the LC is also ...

We investigated opioid peptide actions on somatic calcium-dependent action potentials of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons grown in primary dissociated cell culture. We report that leucine-enkephalin decreased the duration and amplitude of DRG somatic calcium-dependent action potentials. The opioid peptide action was dose-dependent over 20 nM to 5 microM and was antagonized by naloxone, consis...

Through incentive learning, the emotional experience of a reward in a relevant need state (e.g. hunger for food) sets the incentive value that guides the performance of actions that earn that reward when the need state is encountered again. Opiate withdrawal has been proposed as a need state in which, through experience, opiate value can be increased, resulting in escalated opiate self-administ...

AIMS To investigate the patterns of concurrent sexual partnerships among young opiate users and sexual transmissibility of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in concurrent sexual partnerships in drug-use and sexual networks. DESIGN Cross-sectional design. PARTICIPANTS A total of 426 young opiate users in Yunnan, China. SETTING Young opiate users recruited from their network ties. MEASUR...

Opiate analgesics continue to be the most effective drugs for management of cancer-related pain. These mainly work by binding mu opioid receptor in multiple areas along central nervous system. For many years, clinical pain using opiate involved dose escalation. This was primarily due fact that all opiates were perceived as sharing same mechanism action and site. It therefore considere...