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It has been established that pretreatment with the selective mu-opioid receptor (OR) agonist DALDA (0.1 mg/kg, i.v.) or the selective delta1-OR agonists DPDPE (0.09 mg/kg) and/or (-)-TAN-67 (0.08 mg/kg) has no effect on the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias induced by a 10-min coronary artery occlusion and a 10-min reperfusion in ketamine-anesthetized rats. In contrast, the pretreatment with the selective delta2-OR agonist deltorphin II (0.12 mg/kg) and the proposed delta2-OR agonists deltorphin D (0.3 mg/kg) and/or dermorphin H (0.23 mg/kg) increases cardiac resistance to the arrhythmogenic action of acute ischemia and reperfusion. Administration of the mixed mu- and delta-OR agonist dalargin (0.12 mg/kg) 15 min before the coronary artery ligation abolished only the reperfusive ventricular fibrillation. It is concluded that peptidergic stimulation of delta2-ORs can be used as a new means of increasing cardiac tolerance to the arrhythmogenic effects of acute ischemia and reperfusion.

Pretreatment with a selective kappa1 opioid receptor (OR) agonist (-)-U-50,488 (1 mg/kg, i.v.) prevented the development of arrhythmias induced by occlusion (10 min) and reperfusion (10 min) in ketamine anesthetized rats, while the treatment with a less active enantiomer (+)-U-50,488 in the same dose produced no such effects. Preliminary intravenous administration of a selective kappa1 OR antagonist norbinaltorphimine (9 mg/kg) fully abolished the antiarrhythmic effect of (-)-U-50,488, while the kappa2 OR antagonist quadazocine (3 mg/kg) did not eliminate this effect. The injections of norbinaltorphimine or quadazocine alone did not influence the incidence of model arrhythmias caused by the occlusion and reperfusion. It was concluded that kappa1 OR stimulation favors an increase in cardiac tolerance to the arrhythmogenic action of occlusion and reperfusion.