[Place of the opioid system in biology and treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder]

Structure-activity relationship analysis of meta-substituted N-cyclopropylmethyl-nornepenthones with mixed KOR/MOR activities

Substance Use Disorder (SUD) remains a significant global challenge, with current treatment options offering limited efficacy. Agonists targeting the kappa opioid receptor (KOR), especially those with additional mu opioid receptor (MOR) antagonistic activity, have shown promise in addressing SUD. In this study, a series of meta-substituted N-cyclopropylmethyl-nornepenthone derivatives were designed and synthesized, and their biological activities were assessed, leading to the identification of a KOR/MOR dual modulator, compound 10a. Unlike its para-positional isomer SLL-1062, where KOR activity is completely abolished, compound 10a displayed a single-digit nanomolar affinity for KOR, while its binding profiles for MOR and delta opioid receptor (DOR) were comparable to those of SLL-1062. Functional assays in vitro confirmed that compound 10a exhibited agonistic activity at KOR and antagonistic activity at MOR. The molecular basis for the introduction of a KOR component into compound 10a was further elucidated. Although compound 10a did not produce apparent antinociception in vivo, it effectively blocked morphine-induced antinociception and intestinal motility inhibition in rodent models. This study provides valuable insights into the development of MOR/KOR dual modulators and presents new lead compounds for potential treatments for SUD.

Elevated customary alcohol consumption attenuates opioid effects

BACKGROUND

Regular alcohol consumption is on the rise among older adults and has the potential of altering the subjective experience of pain and response to pain medications. This study examined the cognitive, analgesic and side effect response to oxycodone in middle age and older adults with elevated levels of customary alcohol consumption in a human laboratory setting.

METHODS

After refraining from alcohol for one day, eligible participants underwent baseline assessment cognition and side effects by means of questionnaires that were repeated at three time points (90 min, 5 and 8 h) following administration of a 10 mg oral dose of oxycodone. Response to pain stimulus (Cold Pressor Test (CPT)), pupil size, and plasma oxycodone were also measured.

RESULTS

One hundred twenty-eight adults (age 35-85) completed the study day. Compared to those with lower customary alcohol consumption, participants with elevated alcohol consumption showed attenuated opioid-induced pupil constriction and cognitive decline on objective measures of working memory, sustained attention, inhibitory control, coordination on a simulated driving task, and subjective dysphoric effects with enhanced subjective euphoric effects. Oxycodone pharmacokinetics, pain tolerance to CPT, and Berg balance were impacted comparably between alcohol consumption groups. Women endorsed greater negative drug effects, whereas men endorsed positive drug effects.

CONCLUSION

Independent of subject's age, elevated customary alcohol consumption attenuates opioid central effects (i.e., pupil miosis, impaired cognition) and gender influences subjective drug effects. Clinicians should consider alcohol consumption and gender when prescribing opioid medications.

Patient healthcare trajectory. An essential monitoring tool: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Patient healthcare trajectory is a recent emergent topic in the literature, encompassing broad concepts. However, the rationale for studying patients' trajectories, and how this trajectory concept is defined remains a public health challenge. Our research was focused on patients' trajectories based on disease management and care, while also considering medico-economic aspects of the associated management. We illustrated this concept with an example: a myocardial infarction (MI) occurring in a patient's hospital trajectory of care. The patient follow-up was traced via the prospective payment system. We applied a semi-automatic text mining process to conduct a comprehensive review of patient healthcare trajectory studies. This review investigated how the concept of trajectory is defined, studied and what it achieves.

METHODS

We performed a PubMed search to identify reports that had been published in peer-reviewed journals between January 1, 2000 and October 31, 2015. Fourteen search questions were formulated to guide our review. A semi-automatic text mining process based on a semantic approach was performed to conduct a comprehensive review of patient healthcare trajectory studies. Text mining techniques were used to explore the corpus in a semantic perspective in order to answer non-a priori questions. Complementary review methods on a selected subset were used to answer a priori questions.

RESULTS

Among the 33,514 publications initially selected for analysis, only 70 relevant articles were semi-automatically extracted and thoroughly analysed. Oncology is particularly prevalent due to its already well-established processes of care. For the trajectory thema, 80% of articles were distributed in 11 clusters. These clusters contain distinct semantic information, for example health outcomes (29%), care process (26%) and administrative and financial aspects (16%).

CONCLUSION

This literature review highlights the recent interest in the trajectory concept. The approach is also gradually being used to monitor trajectories of care for chronic diseases such as diabetes, organ failure or coronary artery and MI trajectory of care, to improve care and reduce costs. Patient trajectory is undoubtedly an essential approach to be further explored in order to improve healthcare monitoring.