UA one of several universities looking to end dependency on pain relievers

A group of UA scientists hopes the days of addiction to pain medication may soon be in the past.

The University of Arizona is one of several universities nationwide trying to develop a new medicine that would relieve pain, but would eliminate a continued dependency on the drug.

Isabel Alves, a graduate student working on the project, said she hopes the group's research will create an alternative to morphine - which can cause unwanted side effects including addiction.

"Of course everyone wants to synthesize the best (drug)," Alves said. "We are working with problems that affect most people."

The drug, Biphalin, has been moved from the cell testing phase to the animal testing phase, which is performed at the UA's pharmacology and toxicology department.

"Morphine is a potent drug to relieve pain, but its administration is known to produce severe secondary effects such as addiction," she said.

The natural process of finding a suitable pain medication requires research on cells, then animal testing and finally FDA approval, Alves said.

Drugs that are researched through the process will look at how to stop both psychological and physical effects of addiction, but the psychological effects will be researched later on.

"That's down the road in the animal testing section," said Richard Agnes, another graduate student working on the project.

He added that getting a drug approved can be a long process, but he is still hopeful of having a non-addictive pain medication on the market soon.

"There's really no good pain medications out there," Agnes said, "I think in the next 10 years, there will be."

In the human body, three types of opioid receptors - known as the Mu, Delta and Gamma - bind drugs to cells.

The opioid receptors deal with how a human feels pain. Since 1983, the UA has been researching how to change the current binding methods of the opioid cells.

Agnes said the researchers' goal is to switch the binding from the Mu receptor - which can create addictions when bound to certain drugs - to the Delta receptor.

The research project is funded through a grant by the National Institute of Health.