ArticleMolecular pain2010
Ultra-low dose naltrexone attenuates chronic morphine-induced gliosis in rats.
Article in Molecular pain, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Naltrexone dose-selectively modulates goal-directed behavior and the hypothalamic proteome in rats.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2025Article
- Low-dose naltrexone's utility for non-cancer centralized pain conditions: a scoping review.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2023Article
- Stress- and drug-induced neuroimmune signaling as a therapeutic target for comorbid anxiety and substance use disorders.Pharmacology & therapeutics · 2022Review
- Cerebral μ-opioid and CBTranslational psychiatry · 2021Article
- Multiple Sclerosis and the Endogenous Opioid System.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Review
- Tracking Drug-induced Changes in Receptor Post-internalization Trafficking by Colocalizational Analysis.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2015Article
- Evidence for brain glial activation in chronic pain patients.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2015Article
- Predicting Neuroinflammation in Morphine Tolerance for Tolerance Therapy from Immunostaining Images of Rat Spinal Cord.PloS one · 2015Article
- Optimized Treatment of Fibromyalgia Using System Identification and Hybrid Model Predictive Control.Control engineering practice · 2014Article
- A control systems engineering approach for adaptive behavioral interventions: illustration with a fibromyalgia intervention.Translational behavioral medicine · 2014Article
- Toll-like receptor 4 mutant and null mice retain morphine-induced tolerance, hyperalgesia, and physical dependence.PloS one · 2014Article
- Tetracyclines and pain.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2012Review
- Exploring the neuroimmunopharmacology of opioids: an integrative review of mechanisms of central immune signaling and their implications for opioid analgesia.Pharmacological reviews · 2011Review
- A Control Engineering Approach for Designing an Optimized Treatment Plan for Fibromyalgia.Proceedings of the ... American Control Conference. American Control Conference · 2011Article
- Efficacy of an intrathecal multidrug infusion for pain control in older adults and in end-stage malignancies: A report of three cases.Pain research & managementArticle
- The effects of chronic high-dose morphine on microgliosis and the microglial transcriptome in rat spinal cord.Molecular painArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe development of analgesic tolerance following chronic morphine administration can be a significant clinical problem. Preclinical studies demonstrate that chronic morphine administration induces spinal gliosis and that inhibition of gliosis prevents the development of analgesic tolerance to opioids. Many studies have also demonstrated that ultra-low doses of naltrexone inhibit the development of spinal morphine antinociceptive tolerance and clinical studies demonstrate that it has opioid sparing effects. In this study we demonstrate that ultra-low dose naltrexone attenuates glial activation, which may contribute to its effects on attenuating tolerance.
resultsSpinal cord sections from rats administered chronic morphine showed significantly increased immuno-labelling of astrocytes and microglia compared to saline controls, consistent with activation. 3-D images of astrocytes from animals administered chronic morphine had significantly larger volumes compared to saline controls. Co-injection of ultra-low dose naltrexone attenuated this increase in volume, but the mean volume differed from saline-treated and naltrexone-treated controls. Astrocyte and microglial immuno-labelling was attenuated in rats co-administered ultra-low dose naltrexone compared to morphine-treated rats and did not differ from controls. Glial activation, as characterized by immunohistochemical labelling and cell size, was positively correlated with the extent of tolerance developed. Morphine-induced glial activation was not due to cell proliferation as there was no difference observed in the total number of glial cells following chronic morphine treatment compared to controls. Furthermore, using 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine, no increase in spinal cord cell proliferation was observed following chronic morphine administration.
conclusionTaken together, we demonstrate a positive correlation between the prevention of analgesic tolerance and the inhibition of spinal gliosis by treatment with ultra-low dose naltrexone. This research provides further validation for using ultra-low dose opioid receptor antagonists in the treatment of various pain syndromes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.