Early study suggests new opioid is non-addictive, works only where it hurts

Enlarge / Medical Research: albino rat for animal experiments (credit: Getty | fotografixx)

With a straightforward chemical tweak, the addictive-and often deadly-opioid painkiller, fentanyl, may transform into a safe, non-addictive, targeted therapy. Researchers reported this on Thursday in Science.

In rats, a chemically modified form of the opioid could only work on inflamed, hurting tissue-not the rest of the body. Plus, it wasn't deadly at high doses, like the original, and it didn't spur addiction-forming behavior in the rodents, researchers at Freie Universitit Berlin reported.

"This yielded a novel opioid analgesic [pain reliever] of similar efficacy to conventional fentanyl, however, devoid of detrimental side effects," the authors concluded.

Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments