Sentences with phrase «of mu receptors»

Those animals with more active forms of the gene had higher numbers of mu receptors in their tissues — and higher tolerances for pain.

Not exact matches

Using a small amount of a radioactive substance as a tracer, the scientists focused on the brain's mu - opioid system in which chemicals called endogenous opioids bind to receptors and hinder the spread of pain messages in the brain.

Uhl and his colleagues, Ichiro Sora and Zaijie Wang, of Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) zeroed in on the gene encoding the mu opiate receptor — sections of which they first identified a decade ago.

«Opioids have both analgesic and rewarding effects and they have these effects through mu opioid receptors and these receptors are expressed in pain terminals in the spinal cord and in areas of the brain that regulate pain but are also expressed in areas that regulate reward and a sense of pleasure,» Boyle said, referring to cells found in a person's central nervous system that bind to naturally occurring opioid compounds and reduce pain and make people feel much better.

Bohn and colleagues figured out that mu opioid receptors — the type of opioid receptor targeted by most drugs — send two different streams of messages.

This study further investigated the impact of nicotine use / smoking status and variation in the mu opioid receptor gene (OPRM1), specifically, an A118G single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP, or DNA sequence variation), on the effects of naltrexone on a range of drinking outcomes.

Recent human studies have specifically found that a partner's presence can reduce pain, and supportive touching such as hugging is linked to activation of mu - opioid receptors in the brain.

Those naturally produced opioids, and the opioid drugs that imitate them, inhibit pain by acting on three kinds of opioid receptors — mu, kappa and delta — that are found on the outside of nerve cells in the brain, spinal cord, digestive tract and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, a drug that works much the same way — by blocking the beta - arrestin2 pathway while activating the G protein pathway at the mu opioid receptor — is currently in the final stages of human clinical trials.

Effects of defeat stress on behavioral flexibility in males and females: Modulation by the mu - opioid receptor.

Now, after more than 15 years of research, Maryland's Andrew Coop has patented a compound — UMB 425 — that binds to the mu receptor to deliver pain relief, while simultaneously blocking the delta receptor.

But it's the mu receptor that is primarily responsible for opioids» analgesic effects, and drugs that fit it snugly launch a cascade of chemical changes in nerve cells that slow down the transmission of pain messages to the spinal cord and the brain.

Laboratory research from the University of Chicago Medicine and a genetic study from the University of North Carolina Medical Center both argue that the mu opioid receptor plays an important role in tumor progression and support a therapeutic role for opioid antagonists.

«The results of this study,» the authors wrote, «provide support for the hypothesis that endogenous and / or exogenous opioids, acting via the mu opioid receptor, may influence cancer outcomes.»

Wang D, Sun X, Sadee W. Different effects of antagonists on mu -, delta -, and kappa - opioid receptors with and without agonist pretreatment.