The monosialosyl ganglioside GM-1 reduces the vagolytic efficacy of delta2-opioid receptor stimulation.

The cardiac enkephalin, methionine-enkephalin-arginine-phenylalanine (MEAP), alters vagally induced bradycardia when introduced by microdialysis into the sinoatrial (SA) node. The responses to MEAP are bimodal; lower doses enhance bradycardia and higher doses suppress bradycardia. The opposing vagotonic and vagolytic effects are mediated, respectively, by delta(1) and delta(2) phenotypes of the same receptor. Stimulation of the delta(1) receptor reduced the subsequent delta(2) responses. Experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that the delta-receptor interactions were mediated by the monosialosyl ganglioside GM-1. When the mixed agonist MEAP was evaluated after nodal GM-1 treatment, delta(1)-mediated vagotonic responses were enhanced, and delta(2)-mediated vagolytic responses were reduced. Prior treatment with the delta(1)-selective antagonist 7-benzylidenaltrexone (BNTX) failed to prevent attrition of the delta(2)-vagolytic response or restore it when added afterward. Thus the GM-1-mediated attrition was not mediated by delta(1) receptors or increased competition from delta(1)-mediated vagotonic responses. When GM-1 was omitted, deltorphin produced a similar but less robust loss in the vagolytic response. In contrast, however, to GM-1, the deltorphin-mediated attrition was prevented by pretreatment with BNTX, indicating that the decline in response after deltorphin alone was mediated by delta(1) receptors and that GM-1 effectively bypassed the receptor. Whether deltorphin has intrinsic delta(1) activity or causes the release of an endogenous delta(1)-agonist is unclear. When both GM-1 and deltorphin were omitted, the subsequent vagolytic response was more intense. Thus GM-1, deltorphin, and time all interact to modify subsequent delta(2)-mediated vagolytic responses. The data support the hypothesis that delta(1)-receptor stimulation may reduce delta(2)-vagolytic responses by stimulating the GM-1 synthesis.