Drug allows morphine to relieve pain without addiction

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edgarshade

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New Scientist

22:00 14 August 2012 by Catherine de Lange

With reader comments

A potential new treatment to prevent morphine addiction is at hand. Researchers have identified an immune receptor involved in addiction to the drug, and found a way to block this receptor without affecting pain relief. The discovery offers hope that morphine can be used to relieve pain without running the risk of addiction.

Opioid drugs such as morphine are known to target opioid receptors in the central nervous system, which block pain signals to the brain and flood it with the "feel-good" chemical dopamine. This reward response is what makes opioids so addictive.

Morphine is a widely used pain killer, but its addictiveness means it has to be administered with caution, and often cannot be used for protracted periods of chronic pain.

Mark Hutchinson from the University of Adelaide, Australia, and colleagues have now discovered that as well as working through the central nervous system, opioid drugs like heroin and morphine trigger an immune response, which seems to boost their addictive effects. Blocking this immune response in animals inhibits their addiction.
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More...
http://www.newscientist.com/article...rphine-to-relieve-pain-without-addiction.html
 
I'm sort of confused by what this is saying. So it still gets you high? It's not addictive because it blocks this "immune response"?

When they say that it blocks this "immune response" do they mean that it's prevents physical dependency? I don't see how this would prevent mental cravings/addiction. Obviously that would be awesome if you only had to deal with the mental aspects of WD and didn't have any of the physical WD symptoms to worry about, but I'm not sure how they're defining addiction in this article, unless they are just talking about physical dependency.


Does this mean that tolerance does not go up? I may be mistaken on how opiates work, but to my understanding if you take opiates on a regular basis you create more opiate receptors in your brain, which means that more of them have to be filled to achieve the desired effects. If all the opiate receptors are not filled then you go into withdrawal. The development of more receptors through use is essentially tolerance to the drug. ----- Is that correct or no? If it is then is the article saying that this prevents this development of more opiate receptors? Is the development of more receptors what they mean by "an immune response"?
 
In their latest study, the team found that the receptor acts as an amplifier of reward when opioids are bound to it. The team did a series of experiments looking at addictive behaviour in rats and mice that had been given either morphine alone, or a drug called plus-naloxone – which blocks the TLR-4 receptor – followed by morphine.

Rats given plus-naloxone before receiving morphine did not exhibit behaviour linked to addiction. Their brains also showed a significantly lower release of dopamine than in rats that only received morphine. Using a heat sensitivity test, the team also showed that the rodents given plus-naloxone still experienced pain relief from the morphine, despite lacking signs of addiction.

To make sure that the TLR-4 receptor really was controlling these differences, the team also bred rats that lacked the receptor. Under the same tests, these rats behaved like those that had been given plus-naloxone.

The idea that the rewarding effect of opioid drugs is potentially mediated by this receptor "flies in the face of current opinion," says Chris Bailey, a pharmacologist from the University of Bath in the UK. "People for hundreds of years have been trying to come up with an opioid analgesic which isn't rewarding," he says.
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from the article, note "normal" naloxone is the minus enantiomer
 
not to mention, we will be able to explore morphine's effectiveness in other therapies, besides just severe pain. the DEA won't be able to block the research if it doesn't have "abuse potential."
 
If it only blocked the physical dependency, tolerance, or even better the fiending it'd be good. But if it blocks the high than this suck:X. I'd argue that the high is a big part of opiates' therapeutic effects. Not only would the high relieve the pain of someone sick, injured or dying, but could provide some comfort and relaxation.
 
significantly lower release of dopamine than in rats that only received morphine. Using a heat sensitivity test, the team also showed that the rodents given plus-naloxone still experienced pain relief from the morphine
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Probably means it doesn't feel nearly as good. I wonder if the pain relief was reduced too? Can't find the article.
 
lol Ironically the DEA will be the agency that stops further research on this, the DEA WANTS to keep drugs illegal, its all part of the elites plan to put people in cages for no reason at all other then you have/use a substance they deem illegal.... that is all it is my friends.

Medical science has already shown that long term opiate addiction does not effect health in a bad way and in a lot of cases it can actual improve ones health.... (not talking about the diseases "junkies" get involved with, this is for real life professionals that can use opiates on a daily basis with no ill effects...)
 
At the end of the day, this greedy capitalist economy we partake in, the DEA is gonna fight dirty to keep themselves from being shut down or dissolved. There's way too much money at stake for associates/officials and politicians who - no doubt - are embroiled financially under the table to just walk away.

A drug which stops tolerance to opiates/opioids without any particularly adverse effects would be a dream come true for meself. One apple a day, keeps the doctor away. One OC40 a day, conserves me in a very well-mannered way.
 
Scientists Can Now Block Heroin, Morphine Addiction

http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...encedaily+(ScienceDaily:+Latest+Science+News)

The team from the University of Adelaide and University of Colorado has discovered the key mechanism in the body's immune system that amplifies addiction to opioid drugs.

"Our studies have shown conclusively that we can block addiction via the immune system of the brain, without targeting the brain's wiring," says the lead author of the study, Dr Mark Hutchinson, ARC Research Fellow in the University of Adelaide's School of Medical Sciences.
 
The team from the University of Adelaide and University of Colorado has discovered the key mechanism in the body's immune system that amplifies addiction to opioid drugs.
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this does look bad for optimists hoping for somatic and cognitive freedom.
 
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I think this is a great development. A painkiller equal to opiates in efficacy for painkilling with no abuse potential is something of a holy grail in medicine. I look forward to the day when I can script a prep of something like this, without worrying about potential addiction or unwanted attention from law enforcement.

If this works just as well as plain old opiates for relieving pain, I eventually foresee a day when all legally manufactured and dispensed opioid analgesics must contain this additive, in a prep that's hard to separate out. This would make things so much easier for the healthcare system. If such preps turn out to have a low abuse potential and are otherwise safe, I see them maybe someday even being available over the counter, making doctors' office and ER visits for pain a thing of the past.
 
"These findings are particularly interesting, he says, because it's the first time a mechanism has been identified that separates the pain relief and reward responses to opioid drugs. "It has always been seen that the analgesia and the rewarding aspects go hand in hand," he says."

It kills the high...
 
It doesn't address the issue of whether there is any euphoria at all, or whether you can break through the limit. They're talking about mice, it isn't exactly 100% conclusive as to how it'll affect humans.

Will this work with all opiates, regardless of their receptor affinity? How does this affect tolerance? I mean, what if you build up tolerance to plus naloxone's effects faster than you build up tolerance to certain opiates? How long is plus naloxone's duration? There are opiates out there that exceed naloxone's duration...

Also, there will always be illicit opiates, so uh, if you're trying to catch an opiate high, it'll always be available.
 
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