Dopamine, morphine, and nitric oxide: an evolutionary signaling triad.

CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics
G B Stefano, R M Kream

Abstract

Morphine biosynthesis in relatively simple and complex integrated animal systems has been demonstrated. Key enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway have also been identified, that is, CYP2D6 and COMT. Endogenous morphine appears to exert highly selective actions via novel mu opiate receptor subtypes, that is, mu3,-4, which are coupled to constitutive nitric oxide release, exerting general yet specific down regulatory actions in various animal tissues. The pivotal role of dopamine as a chemical intermediate in the morphine biosynthetic pathway in plants establishes a functional basis for its expansion into an essential role as the progenitor catecholamine signaling molecule underlying neural and neuroendocrine transmission across diverse animal phyla. In invertebrate neural systems, dopamine serves as the preeminent catecholamine signaling molecule, with the emergence and limited utilization of norepinephrine in newly defined adaptational chemical circuits required by a rapidly expanding set of physiological demands, that is, motor and motivational networks. In vertebrates epinephrine, emerges as the major end of the catecholamine synthetic pathway consistent with a newly incorporated regulatory modification. Given the striking simi...Continue Reading

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Citations

Mar 2, 2011·Medical Science Monitor : International Medical Journal of Experimental and Clinical Research·Tobias Esch, George B Stefano
Sep 10, 2015·Journal of Bioenergetics and Biomembranes·George B StefanoRichard M Kream
May 29, 2018·Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology·G B StefanoR M Kream

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