|
|
|
Opioid receptors in analgesic drug design – the past, present and future
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ajay S. Yekkirala
|
|
|
|
Harvard Medical School
|
|
F. M Kirby Neurobiology Center, Children’s Hospital Boston, 2Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02115 USA
|
|
ajay.yekkirala@childrens.harvard.edu
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pain is a common phenomenon that is expressed due to external tissue injury or innate physiological dysfunction. While everyone has experienced pain in some form or the other, over 40% of all Americans visited the clinic due to chronic pain each year according to the American Pain Society. In spite of certain deleterious side effects, such as, respiratory depression, tolerance, and addictive potential, opioids have remained the drugs of choice for the treatment of pain. This review provides a brief snapshot of the past, and ongoing, research in the opioid field, to generate potent analgesics without the debilitating side effects.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|