Casanovas Montasell, MireiaReyes Resina, IreneLillo, AlejandroLillo, JaumeLópez-Arnau, RaúlCamarasa García, JordiEscubedo Rafa, ElenaNavarro Brugal, GemmaFranco Fernández, Rafael2021-04-222021-04-222021-03-091661-6596https://hdl.handle.net/2445/176634Methamphetamine is, worldwide, one of the most consumed drugs of abuse. One important side effect is neurodegeneration leading to a decrease in life expectancy. The aim of this paper was to check whether the drug affects one of the receptors involved in neurodegeneration/neuroprotection events, namely the adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR). First, we noticed that methamphetamine does not affect A2A functionality if the receptor is expressed in a heterologous system. However, A2AR becomes sensitive to the drug upon complexes formation with the cannabinoid CB1 receptor (CB1R) and the sigma 1 receptor (σ1R). Signaling via both adenosine A2AR and cannabinoid CB1R was affected by methamphetamine in cells co-expressing the two receptors. In striatal primary cultures, the A2AR-CB1R heteromer complex was detected and methamphetamine not only altered its expression but completely blocked the A2AR- and the CB1R-mediated activation of the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. In conclusion, methamphetamine, with the participation of σ1R, alters the expression and function of two interacting receptors, A2AR, which is a therapeutic target for neuroprotection, and CB1R, which is the most abundant G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) in the brain. Keywords: G protein-coupled receptor GPCR, striatal neurons, heteromer, drug of abuse, neuroprotectionapplication/pdfengcc-by (c) Casanovas Montasell, Mireia et al., 2021http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/esMalalties neurodegenerativesDroguesReceptors colinèrgicsNeurodegenerative DiseasesDrugs of abuseAcetylcholine receptorsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/article7108912021-04-22info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess