Morphine is an extremely potent opiate analgesic psychoactive drug and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. In clinical medicine, morphine is regarded as the gold standard, or benchmark, of analgesics used to relieve severe or agonizing pain and suffering.
The human body naturally produces opioid-like substances, such as endorphins, which block the perception of pain and increase the feeling of well-being.
In a first-of-its-kind blueprint, scientists have shown how stem cells mature into sensory interneurons, which are responsible for feelings including touch, pain, and itching.
The prescription humans use to manage high blood pressure, discomfort, or memory loss may one day originate from modified bacteria, cultivated in a vat like a yogurt, offering more inexpensive, sustainable drug options than people now have.
Every day, plants around the world perform an invisible miracle. They take carbon dioxide from the air and, with the help of sunlight, turn it into countless chemicals essential to both plants and humans.
Recently, a group of Salk scientists unraveled a neural network in the brain that coordinates breathing rhythm with feelings of fear and pain.
Opioids are a class of substances that control sensations such as pain and emotions in animals. While plant-derived opioid narcotics such as morphine are the most well-recognized, other opioid molecules like endorphins can also be synthesized by the body or artificially developed in laboratories.
Opioids are potent painkillers; however, their use is hampered as patients become tolerant to them, necessitating more and more doses.
Every innovative drug starts with the search for an active substance targeting key players in disease-related processes.
AZoLifeSciences speaks to Dr. Catia Costa about her latest research that showed how class A drug use can be determined from a single fingerprint.
Many modern medicines, including analgesics and opioids, are derived from rare molecules found in plants and bacteria.
Uppsala University scientists have reported that they have developed a new way to predict how unique molecules that can be employed in novel immunotherapy.
A novel molecule LIH383 developed by scientists at the Luxembourg Institute of Health binds to and inhibits a formerly unknown opioid receptor in the brain.
Dr. John Streicher speaks to AZoLifeSciences about his research on improving opioid drugs to make them safer and more effective.
A team of National Institutes of Health-funded researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina has found that deactivating a stress-signaling system in a brain area known for motivation and emotion-related behaviors decreases binge drinking.