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Updated: Jul 28, 2025

Assessment of Morphine-induced Hyperalgesia and Analgesic Tolerance in Mice Using Thermal and Mechanical Nociceptive Modalities
Published on: July 29, 2014
Emerging Field of Biased Opioid Agonists
1Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Abstract:
Advances in opioid pharmacology promise to bring a "better opioid." Biased opioid agonists, designed to recruit G protein over β-arrestin signaling, may provide analgesia without adverse effects of traditional opioids. Oliceridine, the first biased opioid agonist, was approved in 2020. In vitro and in vivo data present a complicated picture, with decreased gastrointestinal and respiratory adverse effects but similar abuse potential. Advances in pharmacology will result in new opioids brought to market. However, lessons learned from the past implore appropriate safeguards to patient safety and critical evaluation of the data and science behind new drugs.
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