Synthesizing an opiate without addictive qualities… maybe
I came across a Deseret Morning News article yesterday, which pointed out some work being done at BYU by an undergrad, which is unusual. (The article is a CnP of this press release.) Castle's work involves creating a racemic mixture of a compound found in the Japanese tape vine, Hasubanonine, which is the molecule you see in the image. The enantiomer produced by the vine has no pain-killing action, but they hope its opposite does:
And the tape-vine's mirror image is close in structure to the morphine molecule. "We've synthesized a mixture of the two mirror-image compounds, the idea being we can take the mirror image of the natural one, send it to NIH to be tested to see if it kills pain. We are optimistic it has painkilling properties, and, if that's true, we are able to synthesize it fairly easily."
It's not well understood what structural features are responsible for the addictive properties of morphine, Castle said. But it is possible they have found a key to a kinder morphinelike drug that would have potential medicinal applications.
I'm not quite sure how they arrive at "possibly not being addictive" from "it's similar to morphine" but there it is nonetheless. A non-addictive opiate is the holy grail of pain killer research, and quite frankly, I'm surprised someone like Endo hasn't looked into this compound before now. As you can see, it is structurally similar to morphine, but since what makes morphine addictive isn't well-understood, I'm not sure how even potential claims as to this new compound's nature can be made with a straight face. They don't even know if it kills pain yet. (Though I suspect, like they do, that it does.)
Talk about jumping the gun. It almost seems like the biggest story here is innovative research being done by an undergrad which, as I said above, is unusual.
[tags]Medicine, pharmacy, narcotics, addiction, analgesic, pain, morphine, chemistry[/tags]
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