Researchers at Indiana University say an improved version of cannabidiol, a chemical found in cannabis, may help reverse the effects of overdosing on drugs such as fentanyl.
in the The study was published July 12 in the Journal of Medicinal ChemistryThe researchers hoped that this new discovery could lead to new ways of reversing overdose, either through new products or by co-acting with naloxone.
According to the Canadian government website, overt opioid toxicity kills an average of 20 people a day, with synthetic opioids such as fentanyl being the main cause. Naloxone is widely used as an antidote for opiate overdose, but has been shown to be less effective against the synthetic opioids in the fentanyl class.
Researchers say you need something that binds to the body’s opioid receptors to counteract the effects of an overdose.
“Synthetic opiates bind very tightly to opioid receptors,” said Alex Straker, senior researcher at the Gill Center for Biomolecular Sciences. Press release issued on Tuesday.
“Naloxone must compete with opioids for the same binding sites in the central nervous system to counteract an overdose. But during a fentanyl overdose, naloxone and fentanyl bind to different sites. does not exist, and we wanted to see if it was negative allosteric.” Modulators could reverse the effects of fentanyl. ”
According to the University of Michigan, allosteric modulators are molecules that interact to the extent that they affect the behavior of other molecules.
The researchers conducted an experiment by testing 50 compounds to determine which compounds showed the most potential as tools to counteract the effects of fentanyl.
The researchers found that cannabidiol (CBD) “could act as a negative allosteric modulator at the binding site,” but required high concentrations in the first phase of testing.
After altering CBD’s structure to be more effective, researchers found they were successful in reversing the effects of fentanyl in tests performed on blood or tissue samples.
“We have identified structural parts that are important for the desired detoxification effect,” Straker explained. “Some of these compounds are much more potent than lead. We cooperated.”
A key next step, according to the study, is for researchers to test their findings on live subjects to determine whether they can reverse the respiratory depressant effects that occur on the body during drug overdoses.
Coverage for this article was paid for through the Afghanistan Journalists in Residence project funded by Meta.
