{"id":631573,"date":"2026-10-15T17:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T17:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/631573\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T17:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T17:12:12","slug":"a-light-activated-morphine-derivative-relieves-pain-in-mice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/631573\/","title":{"rendered":"A light-activated morphine derivative relieves pain in mice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article-content\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-content\">Medicinal chemists and pharmacologists have shed a lot of solvent in the quest to develop a painkiller that can match opioids\u2019 effectiveness <a href=\"https:\/\/cen.acs.org\/articles\/95\/i45\/Looking-beyond-opioids-safer-pain.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">without their unwelcome side effects<\/a>. Along the way, they have developed a panoply of ligands for the \u03bc-opioid receptor. The <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.cell.2026.09.042\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">latest new agonist<\/a> comes with its own on-off switch (Cell 2026, DOI: 10.1016\/j.cell.2026.09.042).<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-content\">The molecule borrows a trick from rhodopsin, one of the light-sensing receptors in human eyes. Vision depends on <a href=\"https:\/\/cen.acs.org\/articles\/83\/i46\/Rhodopsin-Shifts-Caught-Act.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cis-trans isomerization of rhodopsin\u2019s ligand, retinal<\/a>. When retinal absorbs a photon, it changes shape and <a href=\"https:\/\/cen.acs.org\/analytical-chemistry\/structural-biology\/Making-molecular-movies-vision\/101\/i10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">activates rhodopsin<\/a> signaling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-quote--text\">&#8220;This \u2018logic of retinal,\u2019 if you will, can be applied to just about any G protein\u2013coupled receptor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>          Dirk Trauner, chemist, University of Pennsylvania<\/p>\n<p>        <a class=\"btn btn-sm font-mono text-uppercase text-dark howerBorder\" tabindex=\"0\" data-title=\"A light-activated morphine derivative relieves pain in mice\" data-print=\"true\" onclick=\"openShareModal(event)\" aria-label=\"Share, A light-activated morphine derivative relieves pain in mice\" role=\"button\">Share<br \/>\n          <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Medicinal chemists and pharmacologists have shed a lot of solvent in the quest to develop a painkiller&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[309540,12785,309536,50084,1673,11572,122168,309541,3419,2026,3401,122167,99595,134,17523,6804,256991,6570,111,139,69,309535,309534,2850,309538,309539,309537,2859,18760,9361,13221,3934,3422,60952],"class_list":["post-631573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-addictive","tag-analog","tag-azobenzene","tag-behavior","tag-biotechnology","tag-constipation","tag-coupled","tag-cryoem","tag-depression","tag-discovery","tag-drug","tag-g","tag-gpcr","tag-health","tag-ligand","tag-light","tag-morphine","tag-neuroscience","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oipioid","tag-opiate","tag-pain","tag-photodynamic","tag-photopharmacology","tag-photoswitchable","tag-protein","tag-receptor","tag-relief","tag-respiratory","tag-structure","tag-therapy","tag-uv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}