Quote:

The peptide-based drugs, which mimic a natural brain chemical, target the same pain-relieving opioid receptor as morphine.

Researchers at Tulane University and Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System have developed a painkiller that is as strong as morphine but isn’t likely to be addictive and with fewer side effects, according to a new study in the journal Neuropharmacology.

Using rats, scientists compared several engineered variants of the neurochemical endomorphin, which is found naturally in the body, to morphine to measure their effectiveness and side effects. The peptide-based drugs target the same pain-relieving opioid receptor as morphine.

Opium-based drugs are the leading treatments for severe and chronic pain, but they can be highly addictive. Their abuse results in thousands of overdose deaths in the United States annually. They can cause motor impairment and potentially fatal respiratory depression. Patients also build up tolerance over time, increasing the risk for abuse and overdose.

“These side effects were absent or reduced with the new drug,” said lead investigator James Zadina, VA senior research career scientist and professor of medicine, pharmacology and neuroscience at Tulane University School of Medicine. “It’s unprecedented for a peptide to deliver such powerful pain relief with so few side effects.”

In the study, the new endomorphin drug produced longer pain relief without substantially slowing breathing in rats; a similarly potent dosage of morphine produced significant respiratory depression. Impairment of motor coordination, which can be of particular importance to older adults, was significant after morphine but not with the endomorphin drug.

The new drug produced far less tolerance than morphine and did not produce spinal glial cell activation, an inflammatory effect of morphine known to contribute to tolerance.

Scientists conducted several experiments to test whether the drug would be addictive. One showed that although rats would spend more time in a compartment where they had received morphine, the new drug did not affect this behavior. Another test showed that when the press of a bar produced an infusion of drug, the rats only increased efforts to obtain morphine and not the new drug. The tests are predictive of human drug abuse, Zadina said.

Researchers hope to begin human clinical trials of the new drug within the next two years.

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daz01 said:

Sounds like the new non addictive opium substitute... which was morphine... then the new "non addictive" morphine substitute... which was diacetylmorphine. The list could go on.
How long have they been testing this opioid? They didn't realise what they doing with morphine and heroin until it was too late.
I doubt we will ever find a opioid-like drug without it's addictiveness in the near future.

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morrowasted said:

daz01 said:

Sounds like the new non addictive opium substitute... which was morphine... then the new "non addictive" morphine substitute... which was diacetylmorphine. The list could go on.
How long have they been testing this opioid? They didn't realise what they doing with morphine and heroin until it was too late.
I doubt we will ever find a opioid-like drug without it's addictiveness in the near future.

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You cannot deny that scientists and institutions today are way more cautious with their language and practice than they used to be.

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SunnyD said:

morrowasted said:

daz01 said:

Sounds like the new non addictive opium substitute... which was morphine... then the new "non addictive" morphine substitute... which was diacetylmorphine. The list could go on.
How long have they been testing this opioid? They didn't realise what they doing with morphine and heroin until it was too late.
I doubt we will ever find a opioid-like drug without it's addictiveness in the near future.

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You cannot deny that scientists and institutions today are way more cautious with their language and practice than they used to be.

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Yep


Also this is interesting.
I love opiates for pain or fun once in awhile

Subbed

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Connoisseur said:

You know heroin was originally conceived as a non addictive form of morphine

They figured out that wasn't true pretty quick lol

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Connoisseur said:

From 1898 through to 1910, diamorphine was marketed under the trademark name Heroin as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough suppressant. In the 11th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica (1910), the article on morphine states: "In the cough of phthisis minute doses [of morphine] are of service, but in this particular disease morphine is frequently better replaced by codeine or by heroin, which checks irritable coughs without the narcotism following upon the administration of morphine."

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