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The effects of opiates and opioid neuropeptides on mosquito hemocytes
1Old Westbury Neuroscience Research Institute, State University of New York 11568, USA.
Acta Biologica Hungarica
|January 1, 1995
Abstract:
The effects of morphine, Met-enkephalin, and its synthetic analogue DAMA on the hemocytes of Culex pipiens mosquitoes were examined in vitro. Morphine caused the cells to round up and decrease in area. Met-enkephalin caused the cells to become ameboid and increase in area. This effect was accentuated with the addition of the neutral endopeptidase blocker phosphoramidon. DAMA caused a similar but greater enhancement of immune activation which was blocked by the opiate antagonist, naloxone. These results were similar to those seen in other invertebrate hemocytes.