The dopamine receptor antagonist levo-tetrahydropalmatine attenuates heroin self-administration and heroin-induced reinstatement in rats.

Opiate addiction is a chronic recrudescent disorder characterized by a high rate of relapse. Levo-tetrahydropalmatine (l-THP) is an alkaloid substance extracted from Corydalis and Stephania and is contained in a number of traditional Chinese herbal preparations. Compared to other dopamine receptor antagonists, l-THP has lower affinity for D2 receptors than for D1 receptors, and a recent study showed that l-THP also binds to D3 receptors, possibly functioning as an antagonist. The unique pharmacological profile of l-THP suggests that l-THP may be effective for the treatment of opiate addiction. In this study, we investigated the effects of l-THP on heroin self-administration and reinstatement triggered by a priming injection of heroin in abstinent rats trained to stably self-administer heroin under an extinction/reinstatement protocol, and found that l-THP (2.5 and 5 mg/kg, i.p.) decreased heroin self-administration on the fixed-ratio 1 schedule and dose-dependently (1.25, 2.5 and 5 mg/kg, i.p.) inhibited heroin-induced reinstatement of heroin-seeking behavior. Importantly, l-THP (1.25 and 2.5 mg/kg, i.p.) did not affect locomotion, indicating that the observed effects of l-THP on reinstatement do not appear to be due to motor impairments. The present results demonstrated that dopamine receptor antagonist l-THP attenuates heroin self-administration and heroin-induced reinstatement.