Light-activated drugs: topical drugs without side effects

Photopharmacology is an emerging scientific field developed on the basis of the development of photosensitive drugs.

This innovative technology combines a drug with a molecule that acts as a switch.

The Neuropharmacology and Pain Research Group of the Bellevue Institute of Biomedical Research (IDIBELL), School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Institute of Neuroscience (UBNeuro) at the University of Buffalo, led by Professor Francisco Ciruela, proposed a light-activated morphine Derivatives and a photodrug for the treatment of psoriasis, as well as a light-exchange derivative of adenosine, allow researchers to study the transmission of pain

Currently, morphine and other opioid derivatives are the most widely used treatments for pain relief

The team led by Francisco Ciruela worked with Amadeu Llebaria (IQAC-CSIC, Barcelona) to design, synthesize and characterize a photosensitive morphine derivative that can be activated by high-precision light

Ciruela said: "Pharmacology allows us to create an opioid-based treatment with the best risk-benefit ratio

In the journal "Pharmacological Research", researchers proposed a psoriasis solution based on photopharmacology

Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease that affects 2% of the population.

"The

Tools for studying pain transmission 

The researchers worked with Professor Dirk Trauner of the University of New York to develop a light exchange derivative of adenosine, which allowed them to map the contribution of several adenosine receptors in pain transmission

Adenosine is a neuromodulator of cells in the nervous system

 Original reference:

M.

M.

K.
Hüll, V.
Fernández-Dueñas, M.
Schönberger, M.
López-Cano, D.
Trauner, F.
Ciruela.
" Optical Control of Adenosine-Mediated Pain Modulation ".
Bioconjugate Chemistry, August 2021.
Doi: 10.
1021/acs .
bioconjchem.
1c00387