A team of scientists from the University of Florida, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Southern California have found a new drug compound that selectively activates pain-altering receptors, thus providing surgeons with a potentially safer and effective alternative to conventional pain medications such as opioids. The work, “Structure-guided design of partial agonists at an opioid receptor,” appears in the March 13, 2025 edition of Nature Communications.
Pain medications targeting the mu receptor can provide rapid relief, but come with risks like dangerous respiratory depression and addiction. This National Institutes of Health funded study focused on a different receptor—the delta opioid receptor—which, the research team hoped, would demonstrate equivalent pain relief but with fewer side effects.
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