Study upends conventional view of opioid mechanism of action

(NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse) A new discovery shows that opioids used to treat pain, such as morphine and oxycodone, produce their effects by binding to receptors inside neurons, contrary to conventional wisdom that they acted only on the same surface receptors as endogenous opioids, which are produced naturally in the brain.
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news