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Psychopharmacological effects of selective mu/delta/kappa opiate agonists?

Cecil

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 17, 2004
Messages
166
I can't seem to find much information on this by googling, so I thought I'd ask around in here.

What are the effects of peptides that selectively target each of the opiate receptor subtypes? Ie, endomorphin/DAMGO which target mu, DPDPE/DSLET/etc which target delta, and various ones which target kappa.

I'm vaguely familiar with the notion that mu stimulation induces euphoria, but is mu responsible for all the euphoric effects of opiates? In theory could one get high off a dose of endomorphin, even though it's endogenous? Which opiating effects are delta and kappa agonism responsible for?
 
In addition to being responsible for much of the euphoria, mu appears to also be responsible for much of the analgesia. For an example of a selective kappa agonist, I'd look to Salvorin-a (wowsa).
I hope someone here knows a lot more than I. :)

ebola
 
Agonism at all three receptors induces analgesia. The mu receptor is responsible for the euphoria caused by all the common opioids, and also for respiratory depression and constipation. Kappa receptor activation also causes analgesia (but not as strongly as the mu), and dysphoria, hallucinations and diuresis. There's almost nothing known about the effects of delta opioids in humans. In animals they cause analgesia, ischaemic preconditioning of the heart, antidepressant effects and are thought to be involved in hibernation.
 
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