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Scientists Take big Step Toward Finding Non-Addictive Painkiller:
With the support of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine have been working to find a safe, non-addictive pain killer to help fight the current opioid crisis in this country.
And they may have done just that, though in an animal model.
Known as AT-121, the new chemical compound has dual therapeutic action that suppressed the addictive effects of opioids and produced morphine-like analgesic effects in non-human primates.
"In our study, we found AT-121 to be safe and non-addictive, as well as an effective pain medication," said Mei-Chuan Ko, Ph.D., professor of physiology and pharmacology at the School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
"In addition, this compound also was effective at blocking abuse potential of prescription opioids, much like buprenorphine does for heroin, so we hope it could be used to treat pain and opioid abuse."
The findings are published in the Aug. 29 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine.
The main objective of this study was to design and test a chemical compound that would work on both the mu opioid receptor, the main component in the most effective prescription pain killers, and the nociceptin receptor, which opposes or blocks the abuse and dependence-related side effects of mu-targeted opioids. Current opioid pain drugs, such as fentanyl and oxycodone, work only on the mu opioid receptor, which also produces unwanted side effects -- respiratory depression, abuse potential, increased sensitivity to pain and physical dependence.
"We developed AT-121 that combines both activities in an appropriate balance in one single molecule, which we think is a better pharmaceutical strategy than to have two drugs to be used in combination," Ko said.
In the study, the researchers observed that AT-121 showed the same level of pain relief as an opioid, but at a 100-times lower dose than morphine. At that dose, it also blunted the addictive effects of oxycodone, a commonly abused prescription drug.
[...] "Our data shows that targeting the nociceptin opioid receptor not only dialed down the addictive and other side-effects, it provided effective pain relief," Ko said. "The fact that this data was in nonhuman primates, a closely related species to humans, was also significant because it showed that compounds, such as AT-121, have the translational potential to be a viable opioid alternative or replacement for prescription opioids."
Journal Reference:
- Huiping Ding, Norikazu Kiguchi, Dennis Yasuda, Pankaj R. Daga, Willma E. Polgar, James J. Lu, Paul W. Czoty, Shiroh Kishioka, Nurulain T. Zaveri, Mei-Chuan Ko. A bifunctional nociceptin and mu opioid receptor agonist is analgesic without opioid side effects in nonhuman primates. Science Translational Medicine, 2018; 10 (456): eaar3483 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aar3483
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(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday August 31 2018, @10:41PM (2 children)
Provably not everything is in the mind. As I said, even will all conscious awareness of pain removed, there is an anatomical reaction. Our reflexes bypass the brain entirely. By the time the neural signals reach the brain, the muscles are already contracting.
Reactions to drugs definitely vary. I find acetaminophen only somewhat effective. Aspirin works much better for me.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday September 01 2018, @06:11PM (1 child)
No. You can't prove that "everything is in the mind" is false. That's one of the legitimate interpretations of quantum theory, though a rather useless one. But that's not what I was asserting anyway. What I was asserting is that all you can know is your mind. With the emphasis on know. Sensations that you experience do not directly map onto the external world. It's blatantly obvious at the 1-to-1 level, as you can't directly perceive radio waves, but it's even true for the subset of the universe that evokes sensations. See the rubber hand illusion. See theory of the perception of color. Et multitudinous cetera.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday September 02 2018, @04:04AM
Well let's put it this way, even with conscious perception of pain fully blocked, you may still later become conscious of the shakes and others you choose to believe actually exist may observe inflammation and report it to you. You might even observe it for yourself.
If you don't believe that reality is real, you should ask why you are disagreeing with a figment of your own imagination here.