Opioid Ligands Having Delayed Long-Term Antagonist Activity: Potential Pharmacotherapies for Opioid Abuse

Title: Opioid Ligands Having Delayed Long-Term Antagonist Activity: Potential Pharmacotherapies for Opioid Abuse

Volume: 3 Issue: 2

Author(s): Stephen M. Husbands and John W. Lewis

Affiliation:

Keywords: opioid ligands, long-term antagonistic activity, opioid abuse, buprenorphine, methadone

Abstract: Buprenorphine is a partial agonist at the μ-opioid receptor with long duration of action and also exhibits delayed antagonist activity. Buprenorphine is finding increasing use as a treatment agent for opioid abuse, though its low efficacy is not well tolerated by all addicts. There is interest in developing a higher efficacy version of buprenorphine and in this mini-review some of the ligands recently discovered, that share with buprenorphine a profile of agonism followed by delayed antagonism, are discussed.

Cite this article as:

Husbands M. Stephen and Lewis W. John, Opioid Ligands Having Delayed Long-Term Antagonist Activity: Potential Pharmacotherapies for Opioid Abuse, Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry 2003; 3 (2) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1389557033405395