Recent Advances in the Realm of Allosteric Modulators for Opioid Receptors for Future Therapeutics.

TitleRecent Advances in the Realm of Allosteric Modulators for Opioid Receptors for Future Therapeutics.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2017
AuthorsRemesic M, Hruby VJ, Porreca F, Lee YSun
JournalACS Chem Neurosci
Volume8
Issue6
Pagination1147-1158
Date Published2017 Jun 21
ISSN1948-7193
Abstract

Opioids, and more specifically μ-opioid receptor (MOR) agonists such as morphine, have long been clinically used as therapeutics for severe pain states but often come with serious side effects such as addiction and tolerance. Many studies have focused on bringing about analgesia from the MOR with attenuated side effects, but its underlying mechanism is not fully understood. Recently, focus has been geared toward the design and elucidation of the orthosteric site with ligands of various biological profiles and mixed subtype opioid activities and selectivities, but targeting the allosteric site is an area of increasing interest. It has been shown that allosteric modulators play key roles in influencing receptor function such as its tolerance to a ligand and affect downstream pathways. There has been a high variance of chemical structures that provide allosteric modulation at a given receptor, but recent studies and reviews tend to focus on the altered cellular mechanisms instead of providing a more rigorous description of the allosteric ligand's structure-function relationship. In this review, we aim to explore recent developments in the structural motifs that potentiate orthosteric binding and their influences on cellular pathways in an effort to present novel approaches to opioid therapeutic design.

DOI10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00090
Alternate JournalACS Chem Neurosci
PubMed ID28368571
Faculty Member Reference: 
Frank Porreca, PhD