Design, Synthesis and Pharmacological Evaluation of Novel Opioid/Non-Opioid Hybrid Compounds
A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 13
Special Issue Editors
Interests: opioid receptors; neurokinin-1 receptor; peptide synthesis; receptor binding studies; functional assay; opioid peptides; opioid side effects; biased signaling; G-protein; β-arrestin; molecular modeling
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The use of opioids has become a standard for prolonged pain treatment over the last two decades. This results in an increased incidence of opioid use disorders and opioid overdose mortality rate, widely reported as an opioid crisis. Therefore, the development of safer analgesics with low abuse potential and limited side effects appears to be one of the primary goals of medicinal chemistry.
Analgesic action can also be mediated by the activation of neurotensin, neurokinin, cannabinoid, alpha2-adrenergic, muscarinic, and other G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) widely distributed in the peripheral and central nervous systems. Combining opioids with other neurotransmitters involved in pain perception seems to be an effective strategy for developing novel hybrids, also called multi-target ligands, with improved analgesic activity and limited side effects.
Therefore, clarifying the mechanisms of the cross-talk between opioids and other receptors is one of the most important targets for drug discovery.
Considering the above, we invite researchers to publish their findings on interactions between the opioid system and other regulatory systems involved in pain perception and signaling.
Dr. Justyna Piekielna-Ciesielska
Dr. Katarzyna Gach-Janczak
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- opioid
- opioid hybrids
- pain
- opioid-related side-effects
- tolerance
- addiction
- neurotransmitters
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