Supraspinal interaction between HIV-1-gp120 and cannabinoid analgesic effectiveness.
Jonathan Palma, Madhusudhanan Narasimhan, Josée Guindon, Khalid Benamar
Author Information
Jonathan Palma: Center for Substance Abuse Research, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, 19140, USA.
Madhusudhanan Narasimhan: Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, 79430, USA.
Josée Guindon: Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, 79430, USA.
Khalid Benamar: Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, 79430, USA. khalid.benamar@ttuhsc.edu.
The growing therapeutic use (self-medication) of cannabinoids by HIV-1 infected people and the recent interest in the possible medicinal use of cannabinoids, particularly in pain management, create an urgent need to identify their potential interactions with HIV-1. The goal here is to determine any interaction between proteins of HIV-1 and the analgesic effectiveness of cannabinoid at supraspinal level. Young adult male rats (Sprague-Dawley) were stereotaxically pretreated with HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein 120 (gp120) into the periaqueductal gray (PAG) area, the primary control center of pain modulation. Then, we examined its effect on cannabinoid receptor agonist WIN55,212-2-induced analgesia. Our results demonstrated that gp120 in PAG diminished the analgesic effectiveness of this cannabinoid agonist. These results suggest that gp120 may interact with the cannabinoid system through the descending modulatory pain pathways centered in the PAG to impair the analgesic effectiveness of cannabinoids.
