BioCentury
ARTICLE | Preclinical News

Bifunctional agonist could treat pain, opioid dependency

August 29, 2018 6:02 PM UTC

A team from Astraea Therapeutics LLC (Mountain View, Calif.) and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center developed a bifunctional agonist targeting two opioid receptors that could treat pain without opioid-related side effects and reverse opioid dependency.

Opioids that target the mu opioid receptor (MOR; OPRM1), including morphine, oxycodone and hydrocodone, are effective at providing pain relief but can lead to misuse, addiction and overdose...