Interconverting mu and delta forms of the opiate receptor in rat striatal patches

The binding of a radiolabeled "mu receptor" prototype opiate, dihydromorphine (H2morphine), and the binding of a "delta receptor" prototype, [D-Ala2,D-Leu5]enkephalin (D-Enk), to slide-mounted rat caudate slices were simultaneously compared quantitatively and visualized by autoradiography. Generally, D-Enk bound to opiate receptors distributed evenly throughout the entire striatum (type 2 pattern), whereas H2morphine labeled discrete islands or patches of receptors (type 1 pattern). In the presence of Mn2+ (3 mM) or other divalent cations, however, Na+ and GTP at 25 degrees C caused an increase in D-Enk binding at the expense of H2morphine binding at striatal opiate receptor patches. Thus, these conditions shifted D-Enk binding from an even pattern to one that included both an even and patchy distribution. These incubation conditions not only promoted D-Enk binding to striatal patches but also enabled the opiate receptor to regulate adenylate cyclase with the same (P less than 0.01) ligand selectivity pattern as that obtained by the displacement of D-Enk binding. The relative affinity of opiate receptors in striatal patches for opiate peptides, naloxone, and morphine appears to be a function of incubation conditions and coupling to adenylate cyclase and is not indicative of distinctly different opiate receptors. We postulate a three-state allosteric model consisting of mu agonist-, mu antagonists-, and adenylate cyclase-coupled delta-agonist-preferring states, whose equilibrium may be regulated by a sulfhydryl group mechanism.