Intranasal naloxone rapidly occupies brain mu-opioid receptors in human subjects.

Nasal spray formulations of naloxone, a mu-opioid receptor (MOR) antagonist, are currently used for the treatment of opioid overdose. They may have additional therapeutic utility also in the absence of opioid agonist drugs, but the onset and duration of action at brain MORs have been inadequately characterized to allow such projections. This study provides initial characterization of brain MOR availability at high temporal resolution following intranasal (IN) naloxone administration to healthy volunteers in the absence of a competing opioid agonist. Fourteen participants were scanned twice using positron emission tomography (PET) and [11C]carfentanil, a selective MOR agonist radioligand. Concentrations of naloxone in plasma and MOR availability (relative to placebo) were monitored from 0 to 60 min and at 300-360 min post naloxone. Naloxone plasma concentrations peaked at ~20 min post naloxone, associated with slightly delayed development of brain MOR occupancy (half of peak occupancy reached at ~10 min). Estimated peak occupancies were 67 and 85% following 2 and 4 mg IN doses, respectively. The estimated half-life of occupancy disappearance was ~100 min. The rapid onset of brain MOR occupancy by IN naloxone, evidenced by the rapid onset of its action in opioid overdose victims, was directly documented in humans for the first time. The employed high temporal-resolution PET method establishes a model that can be used to predict brain MOR occupancy from plasma naloxone concentrations. IN naloxone may have therapeutic utility in various addictions where brain opioid receptors are implicated, such as gambling disorder and alcohol use disorder.

Decorin in Human Colon Cancer: Localization In Vivo and Effect on Cancer Cell Behavior In Vitro.

Decorin is generally recognized as a tumor suppressing molecule. Nevertheless, although decorin has been shown to be differentially expressed in malignant tissues, it has often remained unclear whether, in addition to non-malignant stromal cells, cancer cells also express it. Here, we first used two publicly available databases to analyze the current information about decorin expression and immunoreactivity in normal and malignant human colorectal tissue samples. The analyses demonstrated that decorin expression and immunoreactivity may vary in cancer cells of human colorectal tissues. Therefore, we next examined decorin expression in normal, premalignant and malignant human colorectal tissues in more detail using both in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry for decorin. Our results invariably demonstrate that malignant cells within human colorectal cancer tissues are devoid of both decorin mRNA and immunoreactivity. Identical results were obtained for cells of neuroendocrine tumors of human colon. Using RT-qPCR, we showed that human colon cancer cell lines are also decorin negative, in accordance with the above in vivo results. Finally, we demonstrate that decorin transduction of human colon cancer cell lines causes a significant reduction in their colony forming capability. Thus, strategies to develop decorin-based adjuvant therapies for human colorectal malignancies are highly rational.