The manner in which the human body's neural cells build rapid resistance to opioid pain medications has been identified by researchers at the University of Montreal's Sainte-Justine.
The data, revealed in the current issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, will help researchers create more effective pain medications with longer therapeutic responses.
The researchers studied the interaction between drug molecules and ligands in cell receptors (J Neurosci, April 4, 2012, Vol. 32:14, pp. 4827-4840). Previously, ligands were viewed as the receptors' on-off switches; however, their role is more complex, with the same drug sometimes producing different reactions in the body that starts with the ligands' response.
Some receptors "recycle" their signal instead of dying after delivering it, and researchers believe that if they produce opioid ligands that favor the recycling response, their effect will be prolonged.
