The "magic new drug" promises to treat a variety of diseases: cancer, pain, depression.

TextLi Yuanopioid sadvance is a class of small molecular proteins that interact with four opioid receptors on the surface of the central nervous system cells, function as a neuromodulator, and play a key role in pain relief and regulation of emotions such as euphoria, anxiety, stress, and depressionClass 4 opioid receptors include classic receptors mu (s or MOR), delta (sororor or DOR), kappa (sororor or KOR), and non-classical pain-sensitive peptide receptors (NOP, also known as the sophorine FQ receptor)severe pain is treated at this stage mainly by drug action on the opioid peptide systemAnalgesic prescription drugs, including morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl, can cause analgesic effects by targeting and activating opioid receptors, preventing the spread of "pain information" and altering pain sensebut the use of these painkillers often has side effects such as drug tolerance, drug dependence, and respiratory diseasesEspecially in the current "opioid crisis" is not optimistic, there is an urgent need for new opioid peptide system regulation methods, the use of a number of novel mechanisms and can reduce complications of drugs to play a role, researchers at the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) Department of Infection and Immunology recently developed a new compound, LIH383, which binds and blocks the brain's new opioid receptor, ACKR3, to regulate levels of opioid-producing in the central nervous system and enhance the natural pain and antidepressant properties of opioid peptidesThe findings, published June 19 in Nature Communications, are important for developing new drugs to treat pain, depression and brain cancerIn previous studies, the team demonstrated that ACKR3 is a new type of opioid receptor with negative regulatory properties, and that ACKR3 is highly affinity for a variety of opioids in the brain morphorins, pain-sensitive peptides, and strong morphins familyHowever, when opioids bind to classic opioid receptors, they produce "information" that relieves pain or pacifying, but binding to ACKR3 does not produce this information" ACKR3 is an atypical opioid receptor that captures the secreted opioid peptides and reduces their level of interaction with traditional receptors, thereby reducing the effects of opioid peptides and acting as a negative regulator of the opioid peptide systemMax Meyrath, the paper's first author, explainsThe researchers noted that the detection of ACKR3's function led to a new fine-tuning mechanism for the opioid peptide system, which regulates the abundance of natural opioid peptides by manipulating the fifth member of the opioid receptor familyBased on this mechanism, the researchers envisioned a new molecule that could enhance the natural beneficial effects of opioids on pain and negative emotions by targeting and blocking ACKR3, and LIH383 emergedSubsequently, the research team demonstrated the efficacy of LIH383 to regulate ACKR3 activity and filed a patent application in April 2020In addition to being an opioid receptor, ACKR3 was initially known as a chemochemical receptor because of its ability to bind to chemofactors, small molecular proteins secreted by immune cells that mediate immune responses and confirm the involvement of chemofactors in tumor occurrence and metastasisspecifically, ACKR3 is widely expressed in tumors such as glioblastoma and breast cancer, and the presence of ACKR3 is associated with tumor growth, metastasis, resistance to chemotherapy, and poor prognosis"LIH383 interacts with and interferes with ACKR3, so this finding is also expected to be used to treat metastatic cancer," said the paper's author, DrAndy Chevign? "
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