News Studying Natural Opioids Could Lead to New Non-Addictive Analgesics

[RUC4]

Studying Natural Opioids Could Lead to New Non-Addictive Analgesics


PainNewsNetwork.org
By Dr. John Streicher, University of Arizona
3 June 2023

Excerpts:

Opioid drugs such as morphine and fentanyl are like the two-faced Roman god Janus: The kindly face delivers pain relief to millions of sufferers, while the grim face drives an opioid abuse and overdose crisis that claimed nearly 70,000 lives in the U.S. in 2020 alone....Researchers are trying to design drugs that deliver effective pain relief without the risk of side effects, including addiction and overdose.

One approach my research team and I take is to understand how cells respond when they receive a message from an opioid neurotransmitter. Neuroscientists call this process opioid receptor signal transduction. ... When these connections are made, they trigger specific effects like pain relief. So, after a natural opioid neurotransmitter or a synthetic opioid drug activates an opioid receptor, it activates proteins within the cell that carry out the effects of the neurotransmitter or the drug.... However, one thing is clear: Not every protein involved in this process does the same thing. Some are more important for pain relief, while some are more important for side effects like respiratory depression or the decrease in breathing rate that makes overdoses fatal.

So what if we target the “good” signals like pain relief and avoid the “bad” signals that lead to addiction and death? Researchers are tackling this idea in different ways. In fact, in 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first opioid drug based on this idea, oliceridine, as a painkiller with fewer respiratory side effects. ...

 

[Lil'LinaptkSix]

I can see that as a thing in theory. It's all about the profit up til now, maybe a new perspective without "additives" would produce a more efficient (for those in pain) pain relief.
But.. if it can be controlled (as anything that provides a "relief" ), sounds like a wonder drug that winds up with side effects (specially if abused).
just sayin' irdk what to believe anymore.
been mostly lied to all my life that not much surprises me anymore.
I would be an opiate free test "volunteer" sign me up.

 

[TheUltimateFixx]

Ok so maybe we could have a medication with all the benefits of opiates that doesn't cause physical dependence, which would be good. However if it had any pleasurable effects apart from just the pain-killing ones, people would still get addicted to the stuff, as human beings have a propensity to get addicted to just about anything if it provides a reward.

 

[RUC4]

I would be an opiate free test "volunteer" sign me up.

Same fam. Same.