Papers of the Week

Misuse of opioids has greatly affected our society. One potential solution is to develop analgesics that act at targets other than opioid receptors. These can be either used as stand-alone therapeutics or to improve the safety profile of opioid drugs. Previous research showed that activation of G proteins by G protein-coupled receptors has pro-nociceptive properties suggesting that blockade of G signaling could be beneficial for pain control. The aim of this study was to test this hypothesis pharmacologically by using potent and selective G inhibitor YM-254890.