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μ opioid receptor agonist-selective regulation of interleukin-4 in T lymphocytes

Christine Börner1, Sara Lanciotti, Thomas Koch

  • 1Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Magdeburg, 44 Leipzigerstrasse, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany.

Journal of Neuroimmunology
|August 23, 2013
PubMed

Opioids are irreplaceable for the treatment of severe pain. However, opioid-induced immunomodulation affects therapies. Here we report that treatment of human T lymphocytes with the opioids fentanyl, methadone, loperamide and beta-endorphin resulted in a strong induction of the cytokine interleukin-4. In contrast, morphine and buprenorphine induced markedly and significantly lower levels of interleukin-4 mRNA and protein. These findings suggest agonist-biased μ opioid receptor signaling in T cells. In the future, better knowledge about agonist-specific immunomodulatory effects of opioids offers the possibility to select drugs for a therapy with more favorable and/or less detrimental side effects in immune cells.

Keywords:
Biased signalingImmunomodulationInterleukin-4OpioidT cellμ-Opioid receptor

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