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Der Pharmacia Sinica
ISSN: 0976-8688
Page 22
Medicinal Chemistry and Biosimilars
March 25-26, 2019 | Budapest, Hungary
Euroscicon Conference on
Medicinal Chemistry & Biosimilars 2019
F
or thousands of years humans have used opioids acting at the mu opioid
receptor (MOR), such as morphine, for pain relief and for their euphoric
effects. Poppy-derived compounds, and especially their modern synthetic
cousins such as fentanyl, deliver not only robust pain relief but also elicit
a host of unwanted side effects. These include respiratory failure, a life-
threatening outcome that sadly we see far too often in the global opioid
crisis. The Bohn-Bannister research team has succeeded in dramatically
improving respiratory safety in new pain relievers and are now studying
whether properties such as addiction potential, constipation and drug
tolerance can also be eliminated. These probe molecules will help untangle
the mechanistic details of MOR signalling and its pharmacological effects.
Respiratory safety appears to require robust G-protein-mediated MOR
signalling with almost no measurable beta arrestin involvement. We have
identified functionally biased and drug-like MOR agonists with this specific
profile. Further, they are robust and respiratory-safe pain relievers in mice.
These potentially safer opioids may be one of the tools that are badly needed
to combat the opioid abuse epidemic.
Addressing the opioid crisis with safer
opioid pain relievers: is it possible?
Biography
Thomas D Bannister is a Senior Scientific Director
of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research in
Jupiter, Florida. Scripps is a world leader in non-
profit biomedical research. He has received his
scientific training at Wabash College (A.B.), Yale
University (M.S., M.Phil.), and finally at Indiana
University (Ph.D.), where he studied natural products
synthesis under the direction of William R. Roush.
He then worked in the pharmaceutical industry as
a Drug Discovery Medicinal Chemist for 14 years. In
2005, he came to Scripps Florida and built a highly
collaborative research group that provides medicinal
chemistry expertise to several project teams
focused on the discovery of potential new drug and
molecular probes. In particular, the group is now
targeting various cancers, neurological disorders,
and pain. The contributions of Dr. Bannister and
co-workers to medicinal chemistry are reflected in
over 85 published papers and patent applications.
His work in collaboration with Laura Bohn, to be
discussed here, is aimed at the discovery, evaluation,
and optimization of safer pain relievers as part of
an overall strategy to help combat the global opioid
abuse epidemic.
tbannist@scripps.eduThomas D Bannister et al., Der Pharmacia Sinica 2019, Volume:10
DOI: 10.21767/0976-8688-C1-001
Thomas D Bannister, Laura M Bohn, Cullen L Schmid,
Nicole M Kennedy, Nicolette C Ross, Kimberly M Lovell,
Zhizhou Yue, Jenny Morge weck and Michael D Cameron
The Scripps Research Institute, USA