The autoimmune nature of morphine addiction.

ABSTRACT

The onset of the disease as a morphine addiction is associated with the appearance in the patient's body of antibodies directed against opiate receptors (ORs). Once anti-opiate receptor antibodies (anti-OR antibodies) appear in the blood they will tend to bind to ORs. Such binding will cause blocking of physiological functions of OR. The blockage is felt by a morphine addict as withdrawal syndrome. To get rid of this harmful condition, the addict increases the dose of morphine taken. This is where tolerance manifests itself. The drug addict is forced to increase the dose of morphine from time to time because of the body responds by producing the more and more anti-OR antibodies. The immunological nature of morphine addiction is the reason for lifelong changes in the body's reactivity to the drug. An addict can be cured if he gets rid of B- and T-memory cells, which specifically react to ORs.