Nokomis Ramos-Gonzalez, PhD

One in five Americans suffer from chronic pain, and the best treatments currently are opioid drugs. However, the over prescription of these drugs has led to the opioid crisis in the United States. There is a need for safer drugs to treat pain without dangerous side effects. Most opioids that you may have heard of, such as morphine or fentanyl, act at the mu opioid receptor. A receptor is a protein that sits on the cell surface and translates a message from outside the cell, such as a drug, into the inside of the cell. Within the same family as the mu opioid receptor is the kappa opioid receptor, which is my protein of interest. Activating the kappa opioid receptor can give pain relief but comes with its own side effects: drowsiness, anxiety, depressive states, and effects on urination and the gut. Stimulating the kappa opioid receptor can activate multiple pathways in the cell. You could imagine these pathways as branches of a tree, and there is evidence that some of these pathways, or branches, may lead to more beneficial effects than others. In my project, I am designing and examining the pharmacology of new kappa opioid receptor drugs that activate specific pathways and that activate these pathways with less efficacy to hopefully avoid negative side effects.

Watch a Q&A with Nokomis