Scripps Florida Scientists Identify Novel Compound to Alleviate Pain and Itch

“The most significant aspect of the study is that we can preserve itch and pain treatment qualities in a KOR agonist that we developed—triazole 1.1—while avoiding the euphoria associated with narcotic opioids and the dysphoria associated with some other selective KOR agonists,” said TSRI Professor Laura Bohn, senior author of the new study.

The research was published this week online ahead of print in the journal Science Signaling.

Circumventing Side Effects

KORs help regulate the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Drugs that target KORs have shown promise as therapeutic candidates because of their efficacy for treating chronic itch and relieving pain. Unlike opioid narcotics that target other opioid receptors, these compounds do not produce a “high” or increased risk of overdose; however, they can deplete the body’s supply of dopamine and produce dysphoria and sedation, side effects that have limited their clinical development.

Bohn’s laboratory has pioneered the concept that KOR signaling can be fine-tuned to preferentially activate certain pathways over others so that the receptor signals through G proteins rather than through a protein called β-arrestin2.

In the new study, the researchers used rodent models to compare this kind of “biased” KOR agonist, called triazole 1.1, and a conventional KOR agonist.

They found that triazole 1.1 could indeed circumvent the two side effects of previously developed KOR compounds without decreasing dopamine levels, a property associated with dysphoria and sedation.

“This adds to the mounting evidence that shows analgesic effects can be separated from the sedative and dysphoric effects by altering how the agonist engages the receptor,” said TSRI Research Associate Tarsis Brust, first author of the study.

Bohn said the new findings clearly demonstrate that the strategy of developing biased KOR agonists offers a promising new way to treat pain and intractable itch without the potential for abuse.

In addition to Bohn, other authors of the study, “Biased Agonists of the Kappa Opioid Receptor Suppress Pain and Itch without Causing Sedation and Dysphoria,” include TSRI’s Tarsis Brust, Jenny Morgenweck, Lei Zhou, Edward L. Stahl, Cullen L. Schmid and Michael D. Cameron; Susy A. Kim, Jamie H. Rose, Jason Locke, Sara L. Jones, and Thomas J. Martin of Wake Forrest University; and Sarah M. Scarry and Jeffrey Aubé of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants P01GM113852, P50DA006634, R01DA014030, U01AA014091 and R01DA031297).

About The Scripps Research Institute

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is one of the world's largest independent, not-for-profit organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. TSRI is internationally recognized for its contributions to science and health, including its role in laying the foundation for new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, and other diseases. An institution that evolved from the Scripps Metabolic Clinic founded by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in 1924, the institute now employs more than 2,500 people on its campuses in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter, FL, where its renowned scientists—including two Nobel laureates and 20 members of the National Academy of Science, Engineering or Medicine—work toward their next discoveries. The institute's graduate program, which awards PhD degrees in biology and chemistry, ranks among the top ten of its kind in the nation. For more information, see www.scripps.edu.