2Hz-electroacupuncture attenuates heroin-seeking behaviors via adjusts CB1-Rs and CB2-Rs expression in relapse-relevant brain regions of heroin self-administration rats

Physiol Res. 2019 Oct 25;68(5):835-844. doi: 10.33549/physiolres.934106. Epub 2019 Aug 19.

Abstract

Opiate addiction has a high rate of relapse. The accumulating evidence shows that electroacupuncture (EA) may be effective for the treatment of opiate relapse. However, the change of expression of CB1-Rs and CB2-Rs involve in 2Hz EA anti-relapse pathway is still unclear. To explore the changes of expression of CB1-Rs and CB2-Rs, heroin self-administration (SA) model rats were adopted and treated using 2Hz EA. The expressions of CB1-Rs and CB2-Rs were observed using immunohistochemistry method. The results showed that, compared with the control group, active pokes in the heroin-addicted group increased, while the active pokes decreased significantly in 2Hz EA group compared with heroin-addicted group. Correspondingly, the expression of CB1-Rs in prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus (Hip), nucleus accumbens (NAc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) all increased significantly while the expression of CB2-Rs in those relapse-relevant brain regions decreased obviously in heroin-addicted group when compared with the control group. In addition, the expression of CB1-Rs obviously decreased in the 2Hz EA group while the expression of CB2-Rs in those relapse-relevant brain regions increased significantly when compared with the heroin-addicted group. It indicated that 2Hz EA could attenuate the heroin-evoked seeking behaviors effectively. The anti-relapse effects of 2Hz EA might be related to the decrease of CB1-Rs and increase of CB2-Rs expression in relapse-relevant brain regions of heroin SA rats.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Behavior, Animal / drug effects*
  • Brain / drug effects*
  • Brain / metabolism
  • Brain / physiopathology
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Drug-Seeking Behavior / drug effects*
  • Electroacupuncture*
  • Extinction, Psychological / drug effects
  • Heroin / administration & dosage*
  • Heroin Dependence / metabolism
  • Heroin Dependence / physiopathology
  • Heroin Dependence / psychology
  • Heroin Dependence / therapy*
  • Locomotion / drug effects
  • Male
  • Narcotic Antagonists / administration & dosage*
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Receptor, Cannabinoid, CB1 / metabolism*
  • Receptor, Cannabinoid, CB2 / metabolism*
  • Recurrence
  • Self Administration
  • Signal Transduction

Substances

  • Cnr1 protein, rat
  • Cnr2 protein, rat
  • Narcotic Antagonists
  • Receptor, Cannabinoid, CB1
  • Receptor, Cannabinoid, CB2
  • Heroin