Cholesterol reduction by methyl-β-cyclodextrin attenuates the delta opioid receptor-mediated signaling in neuronal cells but enhances it in non-neuronal cells

Opioid receptors have been shown to be located in and regulated by lipid rafts/caveolae in caveolin-rich non-neuronal cells. Here, we found that caveolin-1 level was very low in rat brain and undetectable in NG108-15 cells, which endogenously express delta opioid receptors (DOR). Rat caudate putamen (CPu) membranes, NG108-15 cells and CHO cells stably transfected with FLAG-mouse-DOR (CHO-FLAG-mDOR) were homogenized, sonicated in a detergent-free 0.5 M Na2CO3 buffer and fractionated through discontinuous or continuous sucrose density gradients. About 70% of opioid receptors in CPu and DOR in both cell lines were present in low-density (5–20% sucrose) membrane domains enriched in cholesterol and ganglioside M1 (GM1), characteristics of lipid rafts in plasma membranes. In both cells, stimulation with permeable or non-permeable full agonists, but not with partial or inverse agonists, for 30 min shifted ∼25% of DORs out of rafts, by a naloxone-reversible and pertussis toxin-insensitive mechanism, which may undergo internalization. Methyl-β-cyclodextrin (MCD) treatment greatly reduced cholesterol and shifted DOR to higher density fractions and decreased DPDPE affinities. MCD treatment attenuated DPDPE-induced [35S]GTPγS binding in CPu and NG108-15 cells, but enhanced it in CHO-FLAG-mDOR cells. In CHO-FLAG-mDOR cells, Gαi co-immunoprecipitated with caveolin-1, which was shown to inhibit Gαi/o, and MCD treatment dramatically reduced the association leading to disinhibition. Thus, although localization in rafts and agonist-induced shift of DOR are independent of caveolin-1, lipid rafts sustain DOR-mediated signaling in caveolin-deficient neuronal cells, but appear to inhibit it in caveolin-enriched non-neuronal cells. Cholesterol-dependent association of caveolin-1 with and the resulting inhibition of G proteins may be a contributing factor.