New ways to treat chronic pain without opioids

Severe neuropathic pain could be treated safely and effectively without the need for potentially harmful opioids.

The breakthrough discovery was made by Monash University researchers and published in the prestigious journal Nature. It’s set to pave the way for new analgesics that don’t cause respiratory depression and addiction in the way opioids can.

Neuropathic pain is a type of chronic pain that occurs if the nervous system is damaged through injury, infection or cancer treatment. It can also be a symptom of conditions such as multiple sclerosis and diabetes. The lack of therapeutic options has led to a dangerous over-reliance on opioids.

The new study, led by world-renowned drug researchers from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) and the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, demonstrates a new mode of targeting the adenosine A1 receptor protein, long recognised as a promising therapeutic target for
non-opioid painkillers.

Co-corresponding author of the study and Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (home to MIPS), Professor Arthur Christopoulos said,

The world is in the grip of a global opioid crisis and there is an urgent need for non-opioid drugs that are both safe and effective.