The effect of co-administration of morphine and neuroaid on nr2 and nr3 gene expression in hippocampus and striatum of rats

Katayoun Heshmatzad,1,* Mohammad nasehi,2 Mohammad-rreza zarrindast,3

1. Cognitive and Neuroscience Research Center (CNRC), Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2. Cognitive and Neuroscience Research Center (CNRC), Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
3. Cognitive and Neuroscience Research Center (CNRC), Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction

Morphine, a frequently used opiate analgesics, results in differential gene expression in the brain and spinal cord. tolerance and physical dependence, are the consequences of repeated administration of opiate receptor agonists. moreover, neuroaid has been reported to have neuroprotective properties. the aim of this study was to evaluate the nr1 and nr2 gene expression in striatum and hippocampus and assess the neuroaid capacity as the neuroprotection agent.

Methods

All experiments were performed on male rats obtained from pasteur institute weighing 220-240g at the beginning of the experiment. they were housed in groups of five in each cage and they were maintained under the controlled environmental conditions. a total of 20 rats were divided into 4 groups: control, morphine, morphine- neuroaid and neuroaid. in the neuroaid group, neuroaid administration was performed every other day through the 21-day morphine addiction procedure. all the groups were treated for 21 consecutive days and following the drug treatment, dissected part of the brain was removed on day 21 for the control, morphine and neuroaid groups. following the decapitation, different parts of the brain including hippocampus and striatum regions were removed from the skull and the regions were dissected on a plate full of ice. the samples were immediately lysed and the rna extraction procedure was carried out. the expression of nr1 and nr2 was evaluated by performing real time pcr. the statistical analysis was performed with one-way anova and t-test method.

Results

From the t-test analysis, it can be concluded that the morphine administration does not have any significant impact on the nr2 and nr3 gene expression in hippocampus and striatum (p = 0.092 and p = 0.113, respectively) by itself. furthermore, neuroaid administration did not have a noticeable effect on the nr2 and nr3 gene expression in hippocampus and striatum induced morphine (p = 0.383 and p = 0.159, respectively).

Conclusion

Taking together, all the findings suggested that the nmda main subunits does not change significantly following the morphine uptake in rats. moreover, we did not find neuroaid as a neuroprotection agent on responses induced by morphine.

Keywords

addiction; morphine; neuroaid; nmda