1. A Conantokin Peptide Con-T[M8Q] Inhibits Morphine Dependence with High Potency and Low Side Effects.
- Author
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Liu Z, Yu Z, Yu S, Zhu C, Dong M, Mao W, Hu J, Prorok M, Su R, and Dai Q
- Subjects
- Animals, Conotoxins administration & dosage, Conotoxins toxicity, Disease Models, Animal, Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists administration & dosage, Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists toxicity, Hippocampus drug effects, Hippocampus metabolism, Locomotion drug effects, Male, Mice, Morphine Dependence physiopathology, Naloxone pharmacology, Piperidines pharmacology, Spatial Memory drug effects, Conotoxins pharmacology, Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists pharmacology, Morphine Dependence drug therapy, Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate drug effects
- Abstract
N -methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonists have been found to be effective to inhibit morphine dependence. However, the discovery of the selective antagonist for NMDAR GluN2B with low side-effects still remains challenging. In the present study, we report a selective NMDAR GluN2B antagonist con-T[M8Q](a conantokin-T variant) that potently inhibits the naloxone-induced jumping and conditioned place preference of morphine-dependent mice at nmol/kg level, 100-fold higher than ifenprodil, a classical NMDAR NR2B antagonist. Con-T[M8Q] displays no significant impacts on coordinated locomotion function, spontaneous locomotor activity, and spatial memory mice motor function at the dose used. Further molecular mechanism experiments demonstrate that con-T[M8Q] effectively inhibited the transcription and expression levels of signaling molecules related to NMDAR NR2B subunit in hippocampus, including NR2B, p-NR2B, CaMKII-α, CaMKII-β, CaMKIV, pERK, and c-fos. The high efficacy and low side effects of con-T[M8Q] make it a good lead compound for the treatment of opiate dependence and for the reduction of morphine usage.
- Published
- 2021
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