Pharmacological studies and recent research using genetic approaches have indicated that most actions of exogenous opioids, such as morphine, are mediated through the mu-opioid receptor. By contrast, the function of the kappa-opioid receptor in opioid actions largely remains unclear. In this article, Zhizhong Z. Pan discusses the accumulating evidence that activation of the kappa-receptor antagonizes various mu-receptor-mediated actions in the brain, including analgesia, tolerance, reward and memory processes. The neural mechanism for this potentially ubiquitous mu-opposing function of the kappa-receptor is believed to involve distinct locations of the two opioid receptors on physiologically different cell types in local neuronal networks that are implicated in an opioid action.
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机译：药理学研究和使用遗传方法的最新研究表明，外源阿片类药物（例如吗啡）的大多数作用是通过mu-阿片类药物受体介导的。相比之下，κ阿片受体在阿片类药物作用中的功能仍不清楚。在本文中，Zhizhong Z. Pan讨论了越来越多的证据，证明激活Kappa受体会拮抗大脑中各种mu受体介导的动作，包括镇痛，耐受性，奖赏和记忆过程。据信，这种潜在的普遍存在的κ对抗功能的神经机制涉及涉及阿片作用的局部神经元网络中两种阿片受体在生理上不同细胞类型上的不同位置。
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