biphalin and Substance-Related-Disorders

We compared the physical dependence liability of biphalin, a dimeric enkephalin analogue that possesses high antinociceptive activity, with that of morphine in equipotent intravenous doses. Naloxone challenge produced severe withdrawal signs after a 5-day infusion of morphine but only minor withdrawal signs after a 5-day biphalin infusion. In a cross-dependence study, biphalin did not suppress body weight loss after morphine withdrawal, but successfully suppressed weight loss after pentazocine withdrawal. These data support consideration of biphalin as a new analgesic with a novel pharmacological profile and minimum dependence liability.

Topics: Analgesics, Opioid; Animals; Behavior, Animal; Enkephalins; Infusions, Intravenous; Male; Morphine; Morphine Dependence; Naloxone; Pentazocine; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Substance-Related Disorders; Weight Loss

The dimeric enkephalin biphalin (Try-D-Ala-Gly-Phe-NH)2 was evaluated in mice using antinociceptive, gastrointestinal and physical dependence paradigms and compared with that of morphine (reference mu agonist) and etorphine (ultrapotent opioid agonist). Intracerebroventricular biphalin was 6.7- and 257-fold more potent than etorphine or morphine in eliciting antinociception. When administered i.t., biphalin produced only a 60% maximal antinociceptive effect in the tail-flick test even when given at doses up to 3 orders of magnitude higher than those effective i.c.v.; morphine was equipotent in this assay when given i.c.v. or i.t. Both morphine and biphalin were equipotent after i.p. administration. In spite of its antinociceptive effectiveness after i.p. administration. In spite of its antinociceptive effectiveness after i.p. administration, only a small fraction of [125I]biphalin was shown to penetrate to the brain (0.051 +/- 0.011%, at 20 min). After i.c.v. administration, biphalin antinociception was antagonized by receptor selective doses of beta-funaltrexamine (mu antagonist), naloxonazine (mu 1 antagonist), ICI 174,864 (delta antagonist) and [D-Ala2,Cys4]deltorphin (delta 2 antagonist), but not by [D-Ala2,Leu5,Cys6]enkephalin (delta 1 antagonist) or nor-binaltorphimine (kappa antagonist), whereas etorphine antinociception was significantly antagonized only by beta-funaltrexamine and naloxonazine. Intracerebroventricular biphalin inhibited gastrointestinal propulsion at doses 8-fold higher than those producing i.c.v. antinociception; i.c.v. morphine showed a similar antinociceptive and gastrointestinal propulsion A50. Intraperitoneal biphalin, but not i.p. morphine, showed little, if any, physical dependence, but both biphalin and morphine produced significant physical dependence when equiantinociceptive doses were infused i.c.v.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Topics: Amino Acid Sequence; Analgesics; Animals; Brain; Digestive System; Drug Stability; Enkephalins; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred ICR; Molecular Sequence Data; Morphine; Receptors, Opioid, delta; Receptors, Opioid, kappa; Receptors, Opioid, mu; Substance-Related Disorders