ABSTRACT
Aim To study the effect of three kinds of active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine (sinomenine, rhynchophylline and isorhynchophylline) on dre-miR-723-5p expression in morphine-induced zebrafish brain. Methods Morphine was injected intraperitoneally to zebrafish, conditional position preference (CPP) was trained and then the behavioral of animals were observed; the miRNA expression profiles of morphine-additive zebrafish were determined by small RNA sequencing; qRT-PCR was used to verify the expression of dre-miR-723-5p, three target gene databases (miRanda, miRDB, andRNAhybrid) were used to predict the target genes of dre-miR-723-5p; Kobas 3.0 was used to perform Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway analysis of these target genes. Results Morphine-induced CPP model was established successfully. Compared with control group, the resident time and movement map in drug-pair box of zebrafish in model group significantly increased. After drug administration, the resident time and movement map in drug-pair box of zebrafish decreased. The verification results of qRT-PCR were consistent with the results of small RNA sequencing. Ninety-nine putative target genes of dremiR-723-5p that were common to all three target gene databases, which were mainly enriched in biological process, cell composition and molecular function, involved in the positive regulation of MAPK signaling pathway, lysosome, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, and apoptosis. Conclusion Morphine can increase the expression of dre-miR-723-5p in the zebrafish brain, which can be reversed by sinomenine, isorhynchophylline, and rhynchophylline treatment, and dre-miR-723-5p may participate in the mechanism underlying morphine-induced damage of brain.