Chronic exposure to opiate agonists increases proenkephalin biosynthesis in NG108 cells

The neuroblastoma-glioma NG108 cell line has been shown to contain both a delta-opiate receptor and enkephalin peptides. In this paper, the presence of authentic proenkephalin mRNA and proenkephalin-derived peptides are demonstrated. Growth of the cells in the presence of etorphine for 5-7 days resulted in a 3-fold increase of proenkephalin mRNA, which was accompanied by comparable increases in proenkephalin peptides and free enkephalin. The effect was mimicked by either morphine or [D-Ala2,D-Met5]enkephalinamide, and was blocked by naloxone. The EC50 for the effect of etorphine was 10(-9) M. The cyclic AMP content of cells grown for 5 days in the presence of etorphine was the same as that of control cells. Forskolin treatment also increased the proenkephalin mRNA content of the cells: the effect was not additive with that of etorphine, suggesting that the effect of opiate agonists was not occurring through their inhibition of adenylate cyclase. The results suggest that proenkephalin synthesis in NG108 cells can be regulated by two different mechanisms, one involving cyclic AMP while the other, regulated by the opiate receptor, is yet to be determined.