A global team of researchers, led by the University of Glasgow, has launched a £5 million Wellcome Trust-funded study to tackle opioid addiction.
The ground-breaking new project will use genetic and drug-discovery techniques to try to answer the longstanding question: can we have the pain-relief of opioids without the addiction risk?
The research team – a collaboration between Professor Andrew Tobin at the University of Glasgow, Dr Carrie Jones at Vanderbilt University and Dr Craig Lindsey at the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery – aims to prevent addiction to opioid medications by specifically inhibiting the pathways in the brain that are involved in addiction.
Researchers believe this can be achieved by using new, drug-like molecules that inhibit a brain protein called the M5-receptor. Preliminary data from the team has already shown that in mouse models inhibiting the M5-receptor significantly reduces the addiction to prescribed opioids, whilst still maintaining pain relief benefits from the medication.
Through this new project, the research team hope to progress their initial findings by revealing the fundamental biology of the M5-receptor. By investigating this, in the context of opioid addiction models, the team aims to discover breakthrough therapeutic approaches that could reduce addiction to prescribed opioids.
The global opioid crisis is of epidemic proportion, with over 26 million people worldwide estimated to be suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD) – a debilitating, psychiatric condition characterised by compulsive opioid use, dependence and repeated relapse after periods of abstinence.
Many people become addicted to opioids after taking prescribed opioid pain-relief medicines such as morphine, codeine and oxycodone following surgical procedures or injury. Current figures suggest that in the United States more than 2.7 million people suffer from OUD. In the UK, of adults receiving treatment for substance abuse, more than 50% abuse opioids, while in Scotland opioids are implicated in more than 80% of drug misuse deaths.
Andrew Tobin, Professor of Molecular Pharmacology at the University of Glasgow, said: “We are tremendously excited to be given the funds for this international collaboration that will make a major impact in resolving the opioid crisis. We believe that developing new medicines that inhibit the M5-receptor, which can be taken alongside prescribed opioids, will be the key to the safe use of opioid analgesics.”
Dr Jones, Vanderbilt University, said: “We have been given a huge opportunity in this grant to achieve what has been the dream of clinicians worldwide for many years – that is a way of using opioids to control pain whilst avoiding the possibility of addiction. Our work on the M5-receptor is key to making this dream a reality.”
Charles Maasz, CEO of Glasgow City Mission a charity dealing with addiction and homelessness in Glasgow said: “The opioid crisis is lived out on the streets of Glasgow every day, any new ways to reduce those that lose their homes, families and jobs through this terrible affliction are hugely welcome. We at Glasgow City Mission are delighted to be one of the organisations named in this grant to help in this important research.”