Acute morphine treatments alleviate tremor in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine-treated monkeys

Ting Yan; Joshua Dominic Rizak; ShangChuan Yang; Hao Li; Baihui Huang; Yuanye Ma; Xintian Hu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088404

Acute morphine treatments alleviate tremor in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine-treated monkeys

PLoS One. 2014 Feb 10;9(2):e88404. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088404. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Ting Yan¹, Joshua Dominic Rizak¹, ShangChuan Yang², Hao Li¹, Baihui Huang¹, Yuanye Ma³, Xintian Hu³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Science, Kunming, Yunnan, China ; University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China.
² Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Science, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Science, Kunming, Yunnan, China ; Kunming Primate Research Center, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Science, Kunming, Yunnan, China ; Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Kunming, Yunnan, China.

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disorder associated with decreased striatal dopamine levels. Morphine has been found to elevate dopamine levels, which indicates a potential therapeutic effect in PD treatment that has not been investigated previously. To evaluate this hypothesis, an investigation of the acute effects of morphine on PD symptoms was carried out in male rhesus PD monkeys that had been induced with MPTP. All MPTP induced monkeys displayed progressive and irreversible PD motor symptoms. The behavioral response of these animals to morphine and L-Dopa were quantified with the Kurlan scale. It was found that L-Dopa alleviated bradykinesia, but did not significantly improve tremor. In contrast, acute morphine alleviated tremor significantly. These results suggested that, compared to L-Dopa, morphine has different therapeutic effects in PD therapy and may act through different biological mechanisms to alleviate PD symptoms.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine
Animals
Behavior, Animal / drug effects
Hypokinesia / drug therapy
Hypokinesia / physiopathology
Levodopa / administration & dosage
Levodopa / pharmacology
Levodopa / therapeutic use
Macaca mulatta / physiology*
Male
Morphine / administration & dosage
Morphine / pharmacology
Morphine / therapeutic use*
Motor Activity / drug effects
Parkinson Disease / drug therapy
Parkinson Disease / physiopathology
Postural Balance / drug effects
Tremor / drug therapy*
Tremor / physiopathology

Substances

Levodopa
Morphine
1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Science XDB02020000, 973 program 2012CB825500, 2012CBA01304 and 2011CB707800, the 863 program 2012AA020701, KSCX2-EW-J-23 and KSCX2-EW-R-11, the National Science Foundation of China NSFC 91332120, 31271167, 31070963, 31271168, 81271495 and 31070965. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.