Study Of Heroin On Gene Expression And Activity Of The Key Enzyme In Purine Nucleotide Catabolism Of Small Intestine And Muscle

Opium has long been applied for pain relief. However addictive property of opioid alkaloid made heroin and heroine abuse a worldwide problem of medical science and society. Heroin has a higher addictive potential than heroine. Mechanisms about addiction , endurance and withdraw of opioid have been studied comparatively deep-going, while study on opioid's effect on peripheric tissue is scare. The purpose of our study is to reveal effect of heroin on nucleotide catabolism through researching heroin's modulation on gene expression of adenosine deaminase (ADA) and Xanthine Oxidase(XO) which is the key enzyme in nucleotide acid catabolism . In this study, 50 adult male Wistar rats were averagely divided into 5 groups at random. The groups were handled respectively as follows: Gruop1 i.p. N.S. for 9 days and were killed on 10th day; Group2 i.p. heroin for 3 days and were killed on 4th day; Group3 i.p. heroin for 9 days and were killed on 10th day; Group4 i.p. heroin for 9 days and were killed on 13th day; Group5 i.p. heroin for 9 days and were killed on 18th day. Rats'plasma and tissues were collected right after execution and were stored in -20℃refrigerator and liquid nitrogen separately for later use .ADA and XO activity in plasma,tissues were determined . Total RNA in these tissues were extracted respectively for RT-PCR could be estimated. As uric acid is the end product of purine nucleotide determination of plasma, uric acid concentration may reflect the catabolism state of purine nucleotides. Although there were no statistic differences between groups, samples in heroin dependent group showed a higher mean value of uric acid concentration than in control group, and the level of uric acid in naloxone precipitated withdrawal rats was lowered to the control mean. We consider that the high uric acid concentration was resulted from heroine induced enhancement of purine nucleotide catabolism. ADA is key enzyme during purine nucleotide catabolism. In heroine dependent group, the concentration of plasma ADA and tissues ADA showed increased...