Opioid tolerance is well described physiologically but its mechanistic basis remains incompletely understood. An important site of opioid action in vivo is the presynaptic terminal, where opioids inhibit transmitter release. This response characteristically resists desensitization over minutes yet becomes gradually tolerant over hours, and how this is possible remains unknown. Here we delineate a cellular mechanism underlying this longer-term form of opioid tolerance in cultured rat medium spiny neurons. Our results support a model in which presynaptic tolerance is mediated by a gradual depletion of cognate receptors from the axon surface through iterative rounds of receptor endocytosis and recycling. For the μ-opioid receptor (MOR), we show that the agonist-induced endocytic process which initiates iterative receptor cycling requires GRK2/3-mediated phosphorylation of the receptor's cytoplasmic tail, and that partial or biased agonist drugs with reduced ability to drive phosphorylation-dependent endocytosis in terminals produce correspondingly less presynaptic tolerance. We then show that the δ-opioid receptor (DOR) conforms to the same general paradigm except that presynaptic endocytosis of DOR, in contrast to MOR, does not require phosphorylation of the receptor's cytoplasmic tail. Further, we show that DOR recycles less efficiently than MOR in axons and, consistent with this, that DOR tolerance develops more strongly. Together, these results delineate a cellular basis for the development of presynaptic tolerance to opioids and describe a methodology useful for investigating presynaptic neuromodulation more broadly.
The sheer complexity of the brain has complicated our ability to understand its cellular mechanisms in health and disease. Genome-wide association studies have uncovered genetic variants associated with specific neurological phenotypes and diseases. In addition, single-cell transcriptomics have provided molecular descriptions of specific brain cell types and the changes they undergo during disease. Although these approaches provide a giant leap forward towards understanding how genetic variation can lead to functional changes in the brain, they do not establish molecular mechanisms. To address this need, we developed a 3D co-culture system termed iAssembloids (induced multi-lineage assembloids) that enables the rapid generation of homogenous neuron-glia spheroids. We characterize these iAssembloids with immunohistochemistry and single-cell transcriptomics and combine them with large-scale CRISPRi-based screens. In our first application, we ask how glial and neuronal cells interact to control neuronal death and survival. Our CRISPRi-based screens identified that GSK3β inhibits the protective NRF2-mediated oxidative stress response in the presence of reactive oxygen species elicited by high neuronal activity, which was not previously found in 2D monoculture neuron screens. We also apply the platform to investigate the role of APOE-ϵ4, a risk variant for Alzheimer's Disease, in its effect on neuronal survival. This platform expands the toolbox for the unbiased identification of mechanisms of cell-cell interactions in brain health and disease.
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