{"id":118934,"date":"2025-08-29T17:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/118934\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T17:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:42:11","slug":"the-end-of-opioids-new-drug-could-change-the-way-we-treat-severe-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/118934\/","title":{"rendered":"The End of Opioids? New Drug Could Change the Way We Treat Severe Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Pain<\/a>A new non-opioid pain reliever developed in Japan shows early success in clinical trials, offering hope for safer pain management. If effective, it could help curb the opioid crisis by providing a powerful alternative. Credit: Stock<\/p>\n

The discovery of a new painkiller offers relief with fewer side effects.<\/p>\n

Morphine and other opioids are commonly used in medicine because of their strong ability to relieve pain. Yet, they also pose significant risks, including respiratory depression and drug dependence. To limit these dangers, Japan enforces strict rules that allow only specially authorized physicians to prescribe such medications.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the United States saw widespread prescribing of the opioid OxyContin, which fueled a rise in the misuse of synthetic opioids like fentanyl. By 2023, deaths from opioid overdoses had exceeded 80,000, marking the escalation of a nationwide public health emergency now known as the \u201copioid crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new analgesic approach<\/p>\n

Opioids may soon face competition. Researchers at Kyoto University<\/a> have identified a new analgesic, named ADRIANA, that provides pain relief through a completely different biological pathway. The drug is now moving through clinical development as part of an international research collaboration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf successfully commercialized, ADRIANA would offer a new pain management option that does not rely on opioids, contributing significantly to the reduction of opioid use in clinical settings,\u201d says corresponding author Masatoshi Hagiwara, a specially-appointed professor at Kyoto University.<\/p>\n

Targeting adrenoceptors for safer pain relief<\/p>\n

The researchers drew their initial inspiration from compounds that imitate noradrenaline, a chemical released during life-threatening situations that activates \u03b12A-adrenoceptors to reduce pain. While effective, these compounds carry a high risk of destabilizing cardiovascular function. By examining the relationship between noradrenaline levels and \u03b12B-adrenoceptors, the team proposed that selectively blocking \u03b12B-adrenoceptors could increase noradrenaline activity, stimulate \u03b12A-adrenoceptors, and provide pain relief without triggering cardiovascular instability.<\/p>\n

\"Mechanism<\/a>Mechanism of pain relief by ADRIANA. Credit: KyotoU \/ Hagiwara lab<\/p>\n

To test this idea, the scientists used a specialized method called the TGF\u03b1 shedding assay, which allowed them to measure the function of different \u03b12-adrenoceptor subtypes. Through compound screening, they succeeded in identifying the world\u2019s first selective \u03b12B-adrenoceptor antagonist.<\/p>\n

Promising clinical results and future trials<\/p>\n

After success in administering the compound to mice and conducting non-clinical studies to assess its safety, physician-led clinical trials were conducted at Kyoto University Hospital. Both the Phase I trial in healthy volunteers and the Phase II trial in patients with postoperative pain following lung cancer surgery yielded highly promising results.<\/p>\n

Building on these outcomes, preparations are now underway for a large-scale Phase II clinical trial in the United States, in collaboration with BTB Therapeutics, Inc, a Kyoto University-originated venture company.<\/p>\n

As Japan\u2019s first non-opioid analgesic, ADRIANA has the potential not only to relieve severe pain for patients worldwide but could also play a meaningful role in addressing the opioid crisis \u2014 a pressing social issue in the United States \u2014 and thus contribute to international public health efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe aim to evaluate the analgesic effects of ADRIANA across various types of pain and ultimately make this treatment accessible to a broader population of patients suffering from chronic pain,\u201d says Hagiwara.<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cDiscovery and development of an oral analgesic targeting the \u03b12B adrenoceptor\u201d by Masayasu Toyomoto, Takashi Kurihara, Takayuki Nakagawa, Asuka Inoue, Ryo Kimura, Isao Kii, Teruo Sawada, Takashi Ogihara, Kazuki Nagayasu, Takayuki Kishi, Hiroshi Onogi, Dohyun Im, Hidetsugu Asada, So Iwata, Jumpei Taguchi, Yuto Sumida, Suguru Yoshida, Junken Aoki, Takamitsu Hosoya and Masatoshi Hagiwara, 7 August 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073\/pnas.2500006122<\/a><\/p>\n

Funding: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development<\/p>\n

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new non-opioid pain reliever developed in Japan shows early success in clinical trials, offering hope for safer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2605,97,25900,3043,1104,51447],"class_list":{"0":"post-118934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-drugs","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-kyoto-university","11":"tag-opioids","12":"tag-pain-management","13":"tag-pain-medication"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}