Acute morphine administration reduces white blood cells' capability to induce innate resistance against HSV-1 infection in BALB/c mice

Jamali, A and Bamdad, T and Soleimanjahi, H and Pakdel, F.G and Arefian, E (2007) Acute morphine administration reduces white blood cells' capability to induce innate resistance against HSV-1 infection in BALB/c mice. NeuroImmunoModulation, 14 (1). pp. 16-23.

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Abstract

It has been reported that acute morphine administration modulates innate immune response to herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infection. In this study, the effect of acute morphine on innate resistance and its probable mechanisms in increasing the mortality rate during HSV-1 infection were investigated. Methods: Mice were infected with HSV-1 24 h prior to different doses of morphine or saline administration and the mortality rate was recorded. Spleen cells were obtained from morphine- or saline-treated mice, then natural killer (NK) cell activity and interferon- � (IFN- � ) production were evaluated. The effect of morphine on white blood cells’ capacity to induce protection against HSV-1 infection was evaluated by adoptive transfer of spleen cells to cyclophosphamide- treated mice that were previously infected with HSV-1. Furthermore, in a separate experiment, a different group of mice received corticosterone 24 h after HSV-1 infection. Results: Mortality rate in high-dose acute morphinetreated mice increased significantly compared to salinetreated mice (p = 0.035). NK cell cytotoxicity and IFN- � mRNA levels also showed a significant reduction compared to those of control groups (p ! 0.001 and p = 0.014, respectively). Corticosterone administration reduces innate resistance against HSV-1 infection compared to saline-treated mice(p = 0.044). Furthermore, adoptive transfer of normal but not morphine-treated spleen cells induces resistance against HSV infection in cyclophosphamide-injected mice (p = 0.009). Conclusions: The current study shows that acute morphine administration reduces white blood cells’ capability to induce protection against HSV-1 infection via suppression of IFN- � production and NK cells activity. This may be due to the increase in corticosteroids. Further studies are needed to test the effect of acute morphine on other immune cells

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