Drugs that target opioid receptors sometimes have severe side effects. Thousands of people around the world die every day from overdoses involving opioids such as fentanyl. Researchers have taken a ...

Opioid receptors are proteins in the nervous system that interact with opioids. Opioid receptors are part of the endogenous opioid system. This is the body’s internal system for regulating pain, ...

One of the greatest revolutions in the field of pain medication was the isolation of morphine from the opium poppy in the 19th century. Morphine molecules act as painkillers by attaching themselves to ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 119, No. 16 (April 19, 2022), pp. 1-10 (10 pages) Allosteric modulators of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) ...

Two different versions of the mu-opioid receptor within a cellular membrane illustrate how the receptor changes its conformation to send a signal into the cell. Scientists captured six high-resolution ...

Naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, is one of the most important drugs in the United States’ fight against the opioid crisis. It reverses an opioid overdose nearly instantly, restarting ...

Inside the lab: reprogramming how opioids signal One of the most intriguing shifts is happening not at the level of which receptor a drug hits, but how that receptor behaves once activated.