Interactions between mu and kappa opioid agonists in the rat drug discrimination procedure

The present study was designed to explore the nature of the interaction between mu and kappa opioid agonists in the rat drug discrimination procedure. In rats trained to discriminate the kappa agonist U50,488 (5.6 mg/kg) from water, the other kappa agonist bremazocine substituted completely for the U50,488 training stimulus, and the additional kappa agonist tifluadom substituted in three of five of rats tested. In contrast, the mu agonists morphine, fentanyl, and buprenorphine produced primarily vehicle-appropriate responding. When morphine, fentanyl, and buprenorphine were combined with the training dose of U50,488, all three mu agonists reduced U50,488-appropriate responding. In rats trained to discriminate the mu agonist morphine (10.0 mg/kg) from saline, the other mu agonists morphine and buprenorphine all substituted in a dose-dependent manner for the morphine training stimulus, whereas U50,488, bremazocine, and tifluadom produced primarily vehicle-appropriate responding. When combined with the training dose of morphine, bremazocine antagonized morphine's discriminative stimulus effects, whereas U50,488 and tifluadom had no effect. The barbiturate pentobarbital neither substituted for, nor antagonized, the discriminative stimulus effects of either U50,488 or morphine. These results suggest that mu agonists and kappa agonists produce interacting effects in the drug discrimination procedure in rats.