PainRelief.com Interview with:
Susruta Majumdar, PhD
Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology
Washington University School of Medicine
Nokomis Ramos-Gonzalez, PhD
Postdoctoral Trainee in the Majumdar Lab
Washington University School of Medicine
Balazs R. Varga PhD
Center for Clinical Pharmacology
University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy at St. Louis
Department of Anesthesiology and Washington University Pain Center
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, Missouri 63110
Jay McLaughlin, Ph.D
Professor of Pharmacodynamics
College of Pharmacy
University of Florida
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Opioid medications tap into the body’s natural system for mitigating pain by activating pain-suppressing opioid receptors on neurons. Although meant to help, sometimes these medications do harm. Opioid medications offer people relief from debilitating pain, but these drugs come with dangers: the risk for addiction, miserable withdrawal symptoms and the potential for fatal overdose. New mechanistic insights into the function and regulation of the opioid receptors present the opportunity to design new, safer opioid painkillers. The team’s previous research utilized a strategy to design functionally selective “bitopic” opioids by targeting the sodium binding allosteric site in the opioid receptor.
