Corchero J, Avila M A, Fuentes J A, Manzanares J
Departamento de Farmacologia, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain.
Life Sci. 1997;61(4):PL 39-43. doi: 10.1016/s0024-3205(97)00405-0.
Hypoalgesia induced by cannabinoid drugs has been found to implicate the opioid system. The effect of five days treatment with delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was examined on prodynorphin (PDYN) and proenkephalin (PENK) gene expression in the spinal cord of male rats. PDYN and PENK gene expression was estimated measuring by northern blot analysis mRNA levels in the whole spinal cord, containing perikarya of these neurons. The subchronic treatment with THC (5 mg/kg/day; 5 days; i.p.) produced an increase in PDYN (39%) and PENK (34%) gene expression when compared with the vehicle treated group. These results suggest that the effects of THC in the spinal cord involve an increase in opioid activity, and therefore sustain the hypothesis of an interaction between the cannabinoid and opioid systems in this region.
大麻素类药物引起的痛觉减退已被发现与阿片系统有关。研究了给予雄性大鼠5天的δ-9-四氢大麻酚（THC）治疗对脊髓中前强啡肽原（PDYN）和前脑啡肽原（PENK）基因表达的影响。通过Northern印迹分析测量整个脊髓中这些神经元胞体所含mRNA水平，来估计PDYN和PENK基因表达。与给予赋形剂处理的组相比，THC亚慢性治疗（5mg/kg/天；5天；腹腔注射）使PDYN（39%）和PENK（34%）基因表达增加。这些结果表明，THC在脊髓中的作用涉及阿片活性增加，因此支持了该区域大麻素和阿片系统之间存在相互作用的假说。
