Repeated administration of phytocannabinoid Δ9-THC or synthetic cannabinoids JWH-018 and JWH-073 induces tolerance to hypothermia but not locomotor suppression in mice, and reduces CB1 receptor expression and function in a brain region-specific manner
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Issue Date
2015-09-08Author
Tai, S.
Hyatt, W. S.
Gu, C.
Franks, Lirit N.
Vasiljevik, Tamara
Brents, Lisa K.
Prather, Paul L.
Fantegrossi, William E.
Publisher
Elsevier
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, author accepted manuscript
Rights
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License 3.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US), which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
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Show full item recordAbstract
These studies probed the relationship between intrinsic efficacy and tolerance / cross-tolerance between Δ9-THC and synthetic cannabinoid drugs of abuse (SCBs) by examining in vivo effects and cellular changes concomitant with their repeated administration in mice. Dose-effect relationships for hypothermic effects were determined in order to confirm that SCBs JWH-018 and JWH-073 are higher efficacy agonists than Δ9-THC in mice. Separate groups of mice were treated with saline, sub-maximal hypothermic doses of JWH-018 or JWH-073 (3.0 mg/kg or 10.0 mg/kg, respectively) or a maximally hypothermic dose of 30.0 mg/kg Δ9-THC once per day for 5 consecutive days while core temperature and locomotor activity were monitored via biotelemetry. Repeated administration of all drugs resulted in tolerance to hypothermic effects, but not locomotor effects, and this tolerance was still evident 14 days after the last drug administration. Further studies treated mice with 30.0 mg/kg Δ9-THC once per day for 4 days, then tested with SCBs on day 5. Mice with a Δ9-THC history were cross-tolerant to both SCBs, and this cross-tolerance also persisted 14 days after testing. Select brain regions from chronically treated mice were examined for changes in CB1 receptor expression and function. Expression and function of hypothalamic CB1Rs were reduced in mice receiving chronic drugs, but cortical CB1R expression and function were not altered. Collectively, these data demonstrate that repeated Δ9-THC, JWH-018 and JWH-073 can induce long-lasting tolerance to some in vivo effects, which is likely mediated by region-specific downregulation and desensitization of CB1Rs.
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- Pharmacy Scholarly Works [299]
Citation
Tai, S et al. “Repeated Administration of Phytocannabinoid Δ9-THC or Synthetic Cannabinoids JWH-018 and JWH-073 Induces Tolerance to Hypothermia but Not Locomotor Suppression in Mice, and Reduces CB1 Receptor Expression and Function in a Brain Region-Specific Manner.” Pharmacological research 102 (2015): 22–32.
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License 3.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US), which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.