Morphine tolerance in mice changes response of heroin from mu to delta opioid receptors.

Heroin produced antinociception in the tail flick test through mu receptors in the brain of ICR and CD-1 mice, a response inhibited by 3-O-methylnaltrexone. Tolerance to morphine was produced by subcutaneous morphine pellet implantation. By the third day, the heroin response was produced through delta opioid receptors. The response was inhibited by simultaneous intracerebroventricular (i.c. v.) administration of naltrindole, a delta opioid receptor antagonist. More specifically, delta1 rather than delta2 receptors were involved because 7-benzylidenenaltrexone, a delta1 receptor antagonist, inhibited but naltriben, a delta2 antagonist, did not. Also, antinociception produced by i.c.v. heroin was inhibited by intrathecal administration of bicuculline and picrotoxin consistent with the concept that delta1 receptors in the brain mediated the antinociceptive response through descending neuronal pathways to the spinal cord to activate GABAA and GABAB receptors rather than spinal alpha2-adrenergic and serotonergic receptors activated originally by the mu agonist action in naive mice. The mu response of 6-monoacetylmorphine, a metabolite of heroin, was changed by morphine pellet implantation to a delta2 response (inhibited by naltriben but not 7-benzylidenenaltrexone). The agonist action of morphine in these morphine-tolerant mice remained mu. Thus, the opioid receptor selectivity of heroin and 6-monoacetylmorphine in the brain is changed by production of tolerance to morphine. Such a change explains how morphine tolerant mice are not cross-tolerant to heroin.