Influence of continuous levels of fentanyl in rats on the mu-opioid receptor in the central nervous system

The highly potent and efficacious mu-opioid agonist fentanyl was SC infused into rats with submaximal analgesic doses (0-1.14 mu mol/kg/day) continuously for 8 days, checked by the constant daily urinary recovery of intact drug (0.43 +/- 0.031% of the daily dose). Tail-flick latencies measured at 24 (day 1) and 48 h (day 2) after starting the infusion were increased in a dose-dependent fashion compared with those before the infusion (day 0). However, at day 8, the latencies were increased only weakly, not significantly, revealing tolerance to the antinociceptive activity of fentanyl. Fentanyl at all doses showed no significant effect on the capacity (B-max) and affinity (K-d) of the mu-opioid receptor binding of DAMGO to whole brain (B-max 126.2 +/- 3.00 fmol/mg protein, K-d 1.00 +/- 0.04 nM) and spinal cord (B-max 48.24 +/- 2.71 fmol/mg protein, K-d 1.93 +/- 0.13 nM) membranes gained from the rats after killing them at day 8. Gpp(NH)p increased the K-d for brain and spinal cord sites by 3.09 and 2.65, respectively, independent of the fentanyl dose. The infusion with fentanyl did not alter the basal and forskolin-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity in the whole brain membranes, nor did it change the inhibition of the forskolin-stimulated activity by DAMGO. It is concluded that, in rats, constant long-term body levels of highly potent mu-agonists result in a tolerant state that, however, does not produce overall changes in the parameters of their specific receptor sites in the CNS, i.e., receptor capacity and affinity, and in the events closely related to them, i.e., their regulation by GTP and of adenylate cyclase. This does not exclude such possible changes to be restricted to specific regions in the CNS. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.