New opioid douses pain without being addictive or deadly in primates
I wish that I had a dollar for every time that there has been a “media hype” about a new drug discovery because it showed some promise in some animal study…but.. all of its promise(s) quickly fades before it comes to human clinical trials or somewhere along the three human clinical trials… everything FALLS APART. Over my career I have seen “non-addicting” drugs coming to market to only have them to quickly becoming a new drug of choice to abuse. I would like nothing better to see some medication that will address chronic pain without being abused or produce troublesome side effects like opiates do. Lyrica was suppose to be the “new & improved” Gabapentin…only to have a few people in the clinical trials to claim that it made them “high” and guess what… the DEA saw a medication for pain that a few people claimed that it made them high and we ended up with a NEW CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE.
Even if BU08028 survives all the necessary testing and clinical trials to get FDA approval.. no one is going to a prescriber to write for it for 10-15 yrs.
While the opioid epidemic continues kill more than 40 Americans every day, researchers and health experts are frantically searching for ways to curtail use of the highly addictive, pain-quenching drugs. In March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even released new guidelines directing doctors to simply refrain from prescribing opioids. But if a new study holds up, the health agency may be able to reverse course.
According to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an opioid drug referred to as BU08028 was able to alleviate pain in a dozen monkeys just as well as other opioid painkillers, such as morphine. Yet, unlike every other opioid drug, BU08028 showed no signs of being addictive. Even at high dose—at which other opioid drugs inhibit the respiratory and cardiovascular system, which can be fatal—BU08028 was harmless.
“Based on our research, this compound has almost zero abuse potential and provides safe and effective pain relief,” Mei-Chuan Ko, a professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “This is a breakthrough for opioid medicinal chemistry that we hope in the future will translate into new and safer, non-addictive pain medications.”
In pain experiments, which involved dipping monkeys’ tails into hot water, BU08028 was a potent pain-killer. A single dose relieved pain for up to 30 hours. Next, in experiments in which the monkeys were trained to self-medicate, BU08028 proved no more habit-forming than a control dose of saline. Scientists forced one group of monkeys to take BU08028, while another group was forced to take morphine. When the drugs were taken away, the monkeys who had taken BU08028 showed no withdrawal symptoms, unlike the monkeys who had blazed on morphine.
BU08028’s lack of nasty side-effects may hinge on its dual-action biochemistry. Like other opioids, it controls pain by targeting the nervous system’s classic μ-opioid peptide receptors, called MOP receptors. But BU08028 also targets “nonclassical” opioid receptors, called NOP receptors for nociceptin receptors, in the nervous system. These receptor proteins generally don’t interact with opioid drugs, yet they share similarities with the receptors that do. NOP receptors regulate pain, like their MOP counterparts, but they are also involved in a host of other brain functions, such as memory, cardiovascular functions, and anxiety.
“To our knowledge, the present study provides the first functional evidence in nonhuman primates that BU08028 with mixed MOP/NOP agonist activities is an effective and safe analgesic without apparent abuse liability or other opioid-associated side effects,” the authors conclude.
Next, the researchers hope to test BU08028 at treating chronic pain without risks of addiction or overdoses. Regardless of BU08028’s fate in subsequent trials, the researchers are hopeful that the strategy of co-activating NOP and MOP receptors will eventually lead to a safer painkiller.
Filed under: General Problems
Each person react to medication differently. Even different opiate medications may not work the same for someone. Ultram was suppose to be the new wonder drug and while it may work well for some I ended up with a seizures. With Chronic pain their is no one medication is going to work for everyone pain. While this is promising what is someone who is in pain now and unable to get relief because a doctor will not prescribe opiates suppose to do ? Wait 15 years for something that may work.
Oh Judy Underwood trying to do what kill us. I have taken some of the new meds you would be talking a different story if the drug reactions happened to you. When you get so sick from taking some medication that does brings that much harm to you .You will think a different story about them trying.
I was in he hospital over one of the drugs. I felt like someone was pulling every joint apart in my body. I was going out of my mind with pain it would not let up. I went to the hospital. Blood pressure way over 200 hundred ..when it’s usually 110/70 for me. The hospital said we do not treat people with chronic pain they sent me home. My husband was so angry with them. I lay in horrible pain for days. My doctor told me it was over the new medicine I had been taking for a month an a half !
Oh it gets better when I called the number on the paper work I got inside the box of the medicine for the FDA number it said it was their number. The phone rang back to the company that made the medicine. When I ask if this was FDA they just laughed and said no. Oh yes this was not funny. The drug companies do what they want to to you.
They are trying , trying to collect all the money they can out of you by getting new drugs on the market as fast as they can.
We have a pill for any thing we can think of. We need to stop taking so many pills.
At least they are trying.
When something proves too good to be true it generally is especially when it’s medication!
My Neurologist tried my on Embeda ER and it almost Killed me. Then I hesitantly tried Nucentya 100, and that made me feel like I was gonna die!? I am not kidding. In my opinion, these meds are Killers.
Please do not use my last name!!!!!!!