Liposome-Encapsulated Morphine Affords a Prolonged Analgesia While Facilitating Extinction of Reward and Aversive Memories
Morphine is thoroughly used for pain control; however, it has a high addictive potential. Opioid liposome formulations produce controlled drug release and have been thoroughly tested for pain treatment although their role in addiction is still unknown. This study investigated the effects of free mor...
Saved in:
| Published in: | Frontiers in pharmacology Vol. 10; p. 1082 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A
20-09-2019
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Morphine is thoroughly used for pain control; however, it has a high addictive potential. Opioid liposome formulations produce controlled drug release and have been thoroughly tested for pain treatment although their role in addiction is still unknown. This study investigated the effects of free morphine and morphine encapsulated in unilamellar and multilamellar liposomes on antinociception and on the expression and extinction of the positive and negative memories associated with environmental cues. The hot plate test was used to measure central pain. The rewarding effects of morphine were analyzed by the conditioned-place preference (CPP) test, and the aversive aspects of naloxone-precipitated morphine withdrawal were evaluated by the conditioned-place aversion (CPA) paradigm. Our results show that encapsulated morphine yields prolonged antinociceptive effects compared with the free form, and that CPP and CPA expression were similar in the free- or encapsulated-morphine groups. However, we demonstrate, for the first time, that morphine encapsulation reduces the duration of reward and aversive memories, suggesting that this technological process could transform morphine into a potentially less addictive drug. Morphine encapsulation in liposomes could represent a pharmacological approach for enhancing extinction, which might lead to effective clinical treatments in drug addiction with fewer side effects. |
|---|---|
| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 This article was submitted to Neuropharmacology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology Reviewed by: Cristina Cadoni, Italian National Research Council (CNR), Italy; Lynn G. Kirby, Temple University, United States Edited by: Marianthi Papakosta, Sigilon Therapeutics, Inc., United States |
| ISSN: | 1663-9812 1663-9812 |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fphar.2019.01082 |