Selectively promiscuous opioid ligands: discovery of high affinity/low efficacy opioid ligands with substantial nociceptin opioid peptide receptor affinity.

Emerging clinical and preclinical evidence suggests that a compound displaying high affinity for µ, κ, and δ opioid (MOP, KOP, and DOP) receptors and antagonist activity at each, coupled with moderate affinity and efficacy at nociceptin opioid peptide (NOP) receptors will have utility as a relapse prevention agent for multiple types of drug abuse. Members of the orvinol family of opioid ligands have the desired affinity profile but have typically displayed substantial efficacy at MOP and or KOP receptors. In this study it is shown that a phenyl ring analogue (1d) of buprenorphine displays the desired profile in vitro with high, nonselective affinity for the MOP, KOP, and DOP receptors coupled with moderate affinity for NOP receptors. In vivo, 1d lacked any opioid agonist activity and was an antagonist of both the MOP receptor agonist morphine and the KOP receptor agonist ethylketocyclazocine, confirming the desired opioid receptor profile in vivo.

A non-rewarding, non-aversive buprenorphine/naltrexone combination attenuates drug-primed reinstatement to cocaine and morphine in rats in a conditioned place preference paradigm.

Concurrent use of cocaine and heroin is a major public health issue with no effective relapse prevention treatment currently available. To this purpose, a combination of buprenorphine and naltrexone, a mixed very-low efficacy mu-opioid receptor agonist/kappa-opioid receptor antagonist/nociceptin receptor agonist, was investigated. The tail-withdrawal and the conditioned place preference (CPP) assays in adult Sprague Dawley rats were used to show that naltrexone dose-dependently blocked the mu-opioid receptor agonism of buprenorphine. Furthermore, in the CPP assay, a combination of 0.3 mg/kg buprenorphine and 3.0 mg/kg naltrexone was aversive. A combination of 0.3 mg/kg buprenorphine and 1.0 mg/kg naltrexone was neither rewarding nor aversive, but still possessed mu-opioid receptor antagonist properties. In the CPP extinction and reinstatement method, a combination of 0.3 mg/kg buprenorphine and 1.0 mg/kg naltrexone completely blocked drug-primed reinstatement in cocaine-conditioned rats (conditioned with 3 mg/kg cocaine, drug prime was 3 mg/kg cocaine) and attenuated drug-primed reinstatement in morphine-conditioned rats (conditioned with 5 mg/kg morphine, drug prime was 1.25 mg/kg morphine). These data add to the growing evidence that a buprenorphine/naltrexone combination may be protective against relapse in a polydrug abuse situation.