For centuries poppy plants have been grown to provide opium, the compound from which morphine and other important medicines such as oxycodone are derived.
Biotechnology
Aug 24, 2014
5
0
People with chronic pain are often dependent on drugs from the class of opioids with sometimes considerable side effects. Accordingly, in recent years the search for safer alternatives has been the focus of new drug discovery.
Biochemistry
Dec 6, 2023
0
20
Methamphetamine (meth) abuse is a major health concern. Understanding how meth interacts with its target proteins is crucial for the development of novel medications to address drug addiction. Previous research into the mechanism ...
Biochemistry
Nov 24, 2023
0
53
In the continuing effort to improve upon opioid pain relievers, American and Chinese scientists used cryoEM technology to solve the detailed structures of the entire family of opioid receptors bound to their naturally occurring ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jan 12, 2023
0
24
Drug overdoses in the United States have risen sharply in the last two decades. Nearly 92,000 people died from overdoses of illegal drugs and prescription opioids in 2020—more than five times the number of deaths in the ...
Biochemistry
Dec 15, 2022
0
425
As the opioid epidemic raged on with an even greater force during COVID-19, the Scripps Research laboratory of chemist Kim Janda, Ph.D., has been working on new therapeutic interventions that may be able to prevent the bulk ...
Biochemistry
Feb 4, 2021
1
653
The U.S. opioid epidemic is being driven by an unprecedented surge in deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opiates. Fentanyl's powerful effects are long-lasting, and even tiny amounts of the drug can lead to an overdose. ...
Bio & Medicine
Mar 31, 2019
1
238
Opioid drugs like morphine and fentanyl are a mainstay of modern pain medicine. But they also cause constipation, are highly addictive, and can lead to fatal respiratory failure if taken at too high a dose. Scientists have ...
Biochemistry
Jun 22, 2018
0
74
Researchers at McMaster University have developed a new drug screening technique that could lead to the rapid and accurate identification of fentanyl, as well as a vast number of other drugs of abuse, which up until now have ...
Analytical Chemistry
Nov 2, 2017
0
141
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a vaccine that blocks the pain-numbing effects of the opioid drugs oxycodone (oxy) and hydrocodone (hydro) in animal models. The vaccine also appears to decrease ...
Biochemistry
Nov 23, 2016
4
1220
