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Published on: July 3, 2015
Autoantibodies to the delta-opioid receptor function as opioid agonists and display immunomodulatory activity
Parvathi Ranganathan1, Hao Chen, Miranda K Adelman
1Department of Immunobiology, University of Arizona, 1656 E. Mabel Street, PO Box 245221, Tucson, Arizona 85724, USA.
Abstract:
In this report, we show that affinity purified human anti-delta opioid receptor (DOR) autoantibodies from IVIG are specific to DOR and possess agonistic properties displayed by their ability to dramatically decrease forskolin stimulated cAMP accumulation. Anti-DOR autoantibody also caused phosphorylation of the opioid receptor. Anti-DOR autoantibody treatment showed a significant reduction in CXCR4 gene expression as well as surface protein expression. In contrast, anti-DOR autoantibody treatment significantly upregulated CCR5 gene and protein expression. The presence of anti-DOR autoantibodies in IVIG and their potent immunomodulatory activity is further evidence to support the cross-talk between the neuroendocrine and immune systems.
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