Ying Peng
Sun Yat-sen University, China
Title: Autophagy alleviates the memory impairment caused by morphine through inflammation suppression in hippocampi of C57BL/6 mice
Biography
Biography: Ying Peng
Abstract
Morphine abuse in treating chronic pain has become a worldwide problem. But repeated morphine exposure can cause memory impairment with its mechanisms not fully elucidated by current researches. Autophagy is an important pathway for cells to maintain survival. Here we show that repeated morphine injection in C57BL/6 mice for 7 days activates autophagic flux mainly in the hippocampi, with subsequent spatial memory impairment confirmed by Morris water maze test. Autophagy inhibition by 3-methyladenine aggravates memory impairment induced by morphine and is correlated with increased cellular apoptosis in the hippocampus. Furthermore, we show morphine suppresses the expression of TNF-α, IL-6 and iNOS, and inhibition of autophagy up-regulates the expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and iNOS, as well as NF-kappaB’s activation. Taken together, our data indicates that autophagy canal leviate the memory impairment caused by morphine through inflammation suppression in hippocampi of C57BL/6 mice.
