Molecular mechanisms of adaptive transformations caused by alcohol exposure on opioid dynorphin and nociceptin systems have been investigated in the rat brain. Alcohol was intragastrically administered to rats to resemble human drinking with several hours of exposure: water or alcohol (20% in water) at a dose of 1.5 g/kg three times daily for 1 or 5 days. The development of tolerance and dependence were recorded daily. Brains were dissected 30 minutes (1- and 5-day groups) or 1, 3 or 7 days after the last administration for the three other 5-day groups (groups under withdrawal). Specific alterations in opioid genes expression were ascertained. In the amygdala, an up-regulation of prodynorphin and pronociceptin was observed in the 1-day group; moreover, pronociceptin and the kappa opioid receptor mRNAs in the 5-day group and both peptide precursors in the 1-day withdrawal group were also up-regulated. In the prefrontal cortex, an increase in prodynorhin expression in the 1-day group was detected. These data indicate a relevant role of the dynorphinergic system in the negative hedonic states associated with multiple alcohol exposure. The pattern of alterations observed for the nociceptin system appears to be consistent with its role of functional antagonism towards the actions of ethanol associated with other opioid peptides. Our findings could help to the understanding of how alcohol differentially affects the opioid systems in the brain and also suggest the dynorphin and nociceptin systems as possible targets for the treatment and/or prevention of alcohol dependence.

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Imipramine inhibits the serotonin uptake by binding with high affinity to regulatory sites of this uptake located on axons that release serotonin. The number of imipramine recognition sites located on crude synaptic membrane preparations is reduced by two daily injections of imipramine or desmethylimipramine for 3 weeks. When the binding sites for [3H]imipramine are down-regulated the Vma of the neuronal uptake of serotonin is increased. Moreover, in minces prepared from the brain hippocampus of rats receiving imipramine in a dose regimen that reduces the number of [3H]imipramine recognition sites, the efficiency of imipramine as a blocker of the serotonin uptake is diminished. Hence the high-affinity binding sites for [3H]imipramine may have a physiological role in modulation of serotonin reuptake. Probably this is mediated by an endogenous effector of these regulatory sites. A nonpeptidic constituent of rat brain capable of displacing [3H]imipramine from its high-affinity binding site and of inhibiting the serotonin uptake in a dose-related manner has been extracted and its partial purification is described.Imipramine and desmethylimipramine (DMI) have been used for longer than two decades to relieve the symptoms of depression (1, 2). Their capacity to block norepinephrine (NE) and serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5HT) uptake has been considered to be important for their therapeutic action, but when it was noted that imipramine and DMI block amine uptake almost instantaneously, whereas their antidepressant action occurs with a latency time of 1-2 weeks (1), the importance of the uptake inhibition in explaining their therapeutic action was deemphasized. Upon repeated daily administration to rats imipramine and a number of its congeners down-regulate the function of NE recognition sites in several brain structures (3-6); because the onset of this down-regulation and that of the antidepressant action are delayed with respect to the beginning of the treatment, it has been suggested that the NE response downregulation and the antidepressant action may be related (6). An additional tool to study the mechanism of the down-regulation of /3-adrenergic receptors became available when Langer and his colleagues reported that specific Na+-dependent and highaffinity binding sites for [3H]imipramine are located in crude synaptic membranes prepared from various structures of mammalian brains (7,8). The maximal number, Bmax, of [3H]imipramine binding sites is down-regulated by repeated injections of imipramine or DMI (9-11). These recognition sites are located on 5HT axon terminals (12)(13)(14) and appear to be anatomically and functionally associated with the 5HT uptake mechanism (15)(16)(17).In 1981 at a symposium on the mode of action of antidepressants we reported that the selective destruction of 5HT axons by 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT), which eliminates[3H]imipramine recognition sites, prevented the down-regulation of f3-adrenergic recognition sites elicited by two daily injections of DMI repeated for 3 wee...

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