Involvement of Brain Intracellular Proteolytic Systems
in the Effects of Opiates: Caspases

A. A. Yakovlev^a,b,c,1, D. I. Peregud^a,d, L. F. Panchenko^a,d, and N. V. Gulyaeva^b

^aNational Research Center of Addiction, Russian Ministry of Health, Moscow, Russia

^bInstitute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

^cInstitute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russia

^dResearch Institute of General Pathology and Pathophysiology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Received February 25, 2011

Abstract—It is well known that opiates, in particular morphine, are involved in a phenomenon of so-called
pathological plasticity and can bring about considerable structural–functional changes in the CNS, which is an
important mechanism of the formation of dependence. It has been found that realization of pharmacological
effects during acute or chronic action of morphine may be related to changes in the activity of receptors, signal
cascades mediated by secondary messengers, and shifts in the expression of some genes. Less is known about
the relationship between the effects of morphine and functioning of intracellular proteolytic enzymes which are
an important system of post-translational modification of proteins. On the basis of our results and data of liter-
ature, we hypothesized that a number of structural changes induced by morphine may be mediated by pro-
teolytic enzymes from caspase family.

Keywords: morphine, proteases, caspases, plasticity

DOI: 10.1134/S1819712411040192

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