New less addictive alternative of morphine made

Scientists claim to have developed a new drug that is less risky and addictive than morphine, but has the same painkilling power. Initial tests on mice revealed that the new compound activates nerve cell surface receptors responsible for morphine’s painkilling effects.  The compound is so new it doesn’t have a name, just a number. It’s only been tested in mice, and it needs years of

additional animal studies before researchers can even start trials to see if it works safely in humans.

But initial results in mice suggest the new drug might be less addictive than morphine and other opiate painkillers and avoid a side effect known as respiratory depression that results in overdose deaths, scientists say.

the new medicine might not trigger a surge in dopamine, a brain chemical involved in emotions like addiction, pleasure and pain, said Brian Shoichet, senior author of a paper on the new drug published on Wednesday in Nature.

“The dopamine circuit is one of the primary reward circuits in the brain, and its over-activation leads to repeated seeking of the reward stimulus – in this case, morphine (or related opioids),” said Shoichet, a researcher in pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco.

Globally, an estimated 15 million people are addicted to morphine and other opiates, according to the World Health Organization. About 69,000 people die from overdoses of these drugs each year.  Opiates include morphine and the prescription painkillers codeine, oxycodone, oxycontin, hydrocodone and fentanyl as well as illegal drugs such as heroin.