Morphine and heroin differentially modulate in vivo hippocampal LTP in opiate-dependent rat

Addictive drugs have been shown to severely influence many neuronal functions, which are considered as the underlying mechanisms for physiological and psychological dependences. We previously showed that in vivo LTP in rat hippocampal CA1 region is significantly reduced during withdrawal following chronic opiates treatment, and the reduced LTP can be restored by re-exposure of animals to corresponding drugs. Here, we further demonstrated that during opiates withdrawal, the re-exposure of morphine either systemically (subcutaneously) or locally (intracerebroventricularly) could restore the reduced LTP in heroin-dependent rats, but heroin could not restore the reduced LTP, in morphine-dependent rats, indicating differential modulations of hippocampal functions by those two opiates. In contrast, DAMGO, a mu-opioid receptor (MOR) agonist, could restore the reduced LTP, and CTOP, a MOR antagonist, could block the restoration in rats dependent on both opiates, showing that MOR is functional under such conditions. However, the upregulation of hippocampal PKA activity during morphine withdrawal could be suppressed by re-exposure of morphine but not that of heroin, suggesting a likely underlying mechanism of the differential modulation of LTP by two opiates. Taken together, our study clearly demonstrates that chronic abuse of opiates inevitably leads to severe alteration of hippocampal LTP, and reveals the interesting differences between morphine and heroin in their effects on the differential modulation of hippocampal synaptic plasticity.