UNO Grad Develops Safer, Less Addictive Morphine Alternative
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That’s just what happened to University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) alumnus James Zadina, Ph.D., who has developed a safer morphine alternative that reduces the likelihood of addiction.
After graduating from UNO in 1972 with a dual major in psychology and literature, Zadina headed to New Orleans for graduate school at Tulane University. He later completed a postdoctoral fellowship in a joint appointment at the VA and Tulane Medical School.
In 1997, Zadina was studying opioids when he discovered a new opioid in the human brain. It was much different than the opioid drugs given at a clinic.
“Most opioids given at clinics, including morphine, come from the opium plant,” Zadina said. “Hydrocodone, the main ingredient in Vicodin for example, was made around the time of World War I, and we haven’t changed the core structure since then.”
There are four opioid-like structures that your body naturally makes: Enkephalin, beta-endorphin, dynorphin, and endomorphin, the opioid Zadina discovered.
The main goal of treatment with morphine is to relieve pain, and it does so by targeting a specific receptor called the mu receptor.
Knowing all this, Zadina and his team conducted experiments in animals to answer the question of whether structural variations of endomorphin, that act at the same mu receptor, could relieve pain as effectively as morphine, but without the same side effects.
Among the major side effects Zadina and his team looked at were respiratory depression, “which is what kills you if you overdose”, and the potential for abuse, which is currently an epidemic.
The team created exactly what they were aiming for, a compound called the Endomorphin Analog, without the side effects of morphine.
Doctors aren’t prescribing the drug to patients just yet. The compound is going through Food and Drug Administration-required preclinical studies.
“Understandably, the FDA has strict guidelines and we are just getting started in the first phase of the process,” Zadina said. “Another key component is funding.”
Drug abuse is a serious issue in the world today that needs to be resolved. Zadina hopes his new compound will help patients and doctors not have to choose between risking addiction to get effective pain relief, or avoiding addiction, but not having adequate pain relief.
“We hope that, rather than more small modifications, our compound represents a fundamentally different approach to opioids and can lead to safer medications."