Mu opioid receptor agonists are among the most powerful analgesic medications but also
among the most addictive. The current opioid crisis has energized a quest to develop opioid …

Drug addiction is a worldwide societal problem and public health burden, and results from
recreational drug use that develops into a complex brain disorder. The opioid system, one of …

It is estimated that nearly a third of people who abuse drugs started with prescription opioid
medicines. Approximately, 11.5 million Americans used prescription drugs recreationally in …

Introduction: Opioids are the oldest and most potent drugs for the treatment of severe pain,
but they are burdened by detrimental side effects such as respiratory depression, addiction …

Decades of research advances have established a central role for endogenous opioid
systems in regulating reward processing, mood, motivation, learning and memory …

Because of the problems associated with opioids, drug discovery efforts have been
employed to develop opioids with reduced side effects using approaches such as biased …

Positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) of the mu-opioid receptor (MOR) have been
hypothesized as potentially safer analgesics than traditional opioid drugs. This is based on …

Opioids such as morphine—acting at the mu opioid receptor—are the mainstay for treatment
of moderate to severe pain and have good efficacy in these indications. However, these …

Many central biological events rely on protein–ligand interactions. The identification and
characterization of protein-binding sites for ligands are crucial for the understanding of …

Pain remains a very pervasive problem throughout medicine. Classical pain management is
achieved through the use of opiates belonging to the mu opioid receptor (MOR) class, which …