A molecular mechanism for supersensitization of adenylyl cyclase system in cloned opioid receptor-transfected cells following sustained opioid treatment

Abstract

Chronic opioid treatment has been shown to develop supersensitization of adenylyl cyclase (AC) system or cAMP overshoot. In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanism of supersensitization of AC system using CHO cells expressing one of the cloned mu-, delta- and kappa-opioid receptors. In naive cells, acute treatment with an opioid agonist, but not antagonist, suppressed forskolin-stimulated cAMP accumulation. In the cells sustainedly (4 hr) treated with the agonist, the challenge by antagonist induced the cAMP overshoot over the naive level (supersensitization of AC system), but had no effect on GTPase activity. This supersensitization of AC system was not affected by pretreatment with cycloheximide, a protein synthesis inhibitor, or various protein kinase inhibitors (H7, H8, H89 and staurosporine). On the other hand, pretreatment with pertussis toxin blocked both inhibition of AC activity by acute agonist treatment and development of supersensitization of AC system. To examine an involvement of the interaction between G protein and AC in the supersensitization of AC system, we used CHO cells coexpressing the opioid receptor and some chimeric G alpha proteins between G alpha i2 and G alpha q. The results revealed that a specific region of G alpha i2, which is responsible for the interaction with AC, is closely related to the supersensitization. In addition, the supersensitization of AC system was induced by sustained muscarinic agonist treatment in CHO cells expressing the cloned m2 or m4 muscarinic receptor, suggesting this phenomenon is common to the members of the Gi-coupled receptor superfamily. In conclusion, these findings suggest that the development of supersensitization of AC system is attributed to a continuous inhibition of AC by G alpha i, but not to continuous activations of the Gi-coupled receptor and G protein themselves.