Abstract
Previous research indicates that opioid receptor blockade diminishes the effects of neuropeptide Y (NPY) on feeding and memory. Conversely, NPY attenuates naloxone-precipitated morphine withdrawal. The present study evaluated the effects of NPY on the discriminative stimulus and antinociceptive effects produced by the prototypical mu opioid, morphine. Rats were trained to discriminate 5.6 mg/kg morphine (IP) from saline using a standard two-lever, food-reinforced, drug discrimination procedure. Across a range of doses (3.0, 5.0, and 10 μg), intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of NPY failed to substitute for, antagonize, or potentiate the discriminative stimulus effects of morphine. A warm-water tail-withdrawal procedure was used to examine the antinociceptive effects of morphine and NPY, alone and in combination. NPY (3.0 and 10 μg, ICV) failed to alter tail-withdrawal latencies from 52°and 56°C water, whereas morphine (1.0-30 mg/kg, IP) produced a dose-related increase in latencies at both water temperatures. A 10-μg dose of NPY also failed to alter the antinociceptive effects of morphine. This study does not support the idea that the discriminative stimulus and antinociceptive effects of morphine are dependent on an NPYergic pathway. Copyright (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 161-164 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 1999 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by U.S. Public Service Grants DA10277 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (M.P.) and a VA Merit Award (J.C.) from the VA Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN. R.M.A. was supported by training grant DA14277 from the National Institute of Health. D.M. was supported by training grant DA07244 from the National Institute of Health.
Keywords
- Antinociception
- Drug discrimination
- Morphine
- NPY
- Opioids
- Rats