Opiates chemical structures

The chemical structures and biological activities of hundreds of opioid analgesics derived from the prototype opioid drug morphine are most comprehensively described in two books published in 1986, one entitled Opioid Analgesics, Chemistry and Receptors by Casy and Parfitt [1] and the other entitled Opiates by Lenz et al. [2]. Follow-up articles include those by Casy in 1989, entitled Opioid Receptors and their Ligands Recent Developments [3] which also includes sections on opioid peptides, affinity labelling and opioid receptor subtypes Rees and Hunter in 1990 [4] covering the... 

The development of this hypothesis, should it turn out to be correct, provides a useful blueprint for the design and development of new pain-relieving drugs. Such drugs should probably have chemical structures similar to those of naturally occurring opiates. When taken into the body, they should be able to supplement or replace the action of naturally occurring opiates in the reduction of pain. 

There are many legal medicines that use opiates or opiate-like substances. Most of the opiate-based medicines used today are not made from natural opiates, but are either synthetic or semi-synthetic. Synthetic opiate drugs are not actually opiates at all they are merely different chemicals that act like opiates. Semi-synthetics are those drugs that involve changing the chemical structure of a natural opiate. An example of this is heroin, which is a human-made variation of morphine. Morphine and codeine are the principal natural opiates used as medicines and what follows are descriptions of the other most frequently used opiate-based medicines. 

The second group comprises fully synthetic compounds which often have a totally different chemical structure as compared to the semi-synthetic analogs, but interact with the same opioid receptors and show the same spectrum of analgesia and side-effects as the natural compounds. The older name opiates is still in use to describe both groups... 

Figure 15.3. Chemical structure of some non-morphine-type opiates.

The gold standard of opiate pain relievers is morphine. It was one of the first compounds extracted, isolated, and purified from the opium poppy, and it continues to be one of the most widely used pain relievers today. Morphine and other opiate drugs such as heroin, codeine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone have very similar chemical structures (Figure 3.2). However, other opiates such as fentanyl and meperidine (Demerol) have a slightly different structure (Figure 3.3). 

I n analogy to other- better u nderstood - receptor systems like some hormone and opiate receptors it is generally accepted that the olfacto receptors are proteins, and there are some facts known that support this hypothesis. One of these arguments is that, sometimes, slight modification of the chemical structure of a stimulus molecule can lead to big changes in the odor impression this might be qualitative or quantitative. 

Synonyms DM Dextromethorphan hydrobromide Demorphan 3-Methoxy- -methylmorphinan d-Methorphan Drug store wine Robowing Chemical/Pharmaceutical/Other Class The methyl ether of the dextrorotatory form of levor-phanol, an opiate analgesic Chemical Formula C18H25NO Chemical Structure ... 

Chemical/Pharmaceutical/Other Class Opiate analgesic an alkaloid and phenanthrene derivative of opium Chemical Structure ... 

Some examples from our recent study of opiate analgesic structures (8,24) serve to illustrate further the types of information which a combined approach can provide. The approach used in this study was 1) accumulate accurate crystal structure results on representative compounds by literature search and performing crystal structure determinations, then 2) develop and verify molecular mechanics potential parameters for use with analgesics, and 3) perform strain energy calculations to find active conformations by comparing different chemical structural types which act at a common receptor. The object of the study was to 1) better define the three-dimensional requirements of opiate analgesics, and 2) better understand the opiate receptor itself by indirectly investigating it. 

In addition to the inherent difficulties in characterizing the opiate receptor, the problem is compounded by the diversity of chemical structures which are active narcotic analgesics. 

The opiates (Chapter 12) are a group of drugs with similar chemical structures. 

The chemical structures of morphine and heroin in relation to other closely related opiates such as codeine and dihydrocodeine are shown in Figure 2. Morphine has a "phenolic" -OH group in the 3 position and an aliphatic (alcoholic) -OH group in the 6 position. When both -OH groups (3 and 6 positions) are acetylated, diacetyl morphine, better known as diamorphine or heroin is produced. Codeine is the 3-methyl derivative of morphine by substituting the phenolic -OH group with a methyl group in the... 

The chemical structures of morphine, heroin, and other opiates and their derivatives are presented in Table VIII.2. Some of these compounds are discussed in Chapter 7. The structures and addictive potentials of a few selected nonopium analgesics are presented in Table VIII.3. 

Fig. 2. Chemical structures of opiates. The antigenic determinant for immunoglobulin E antibodies is the N-methyl-cyclohexenyl ring in combination with a hydroxyl group on (modified from Bircher 1996)...

Drug Class opioid analgesic, opiate antitussive Chemical Structure see Figure 18.1 Chemical Name methylmorphine, 3-methoxy-17-methylmorphinan-6-ol Cj H NOj... 

Over the last thousand years, herbals have been used by humans in the form of constituents, herbal extracts and finished herbal products other uses may be in functional foods and meditative products, as well as in opiates, perfumes, decorative agents, dyes, poisonous arrows and for salvation. With the development of chemical structures, the pharmacology and mechanisms of action of plant active constituents have resulted in the expansion of life-saving medicines for human diseases. For human civilization, many herbal medicines have saved the lives of millions of people, some examples of... 

The recent discovery of a class of peptides, the enkephalins, which act as opiate agonists has led to a number of physical chemical studies aimed at understanding the structure-activity relationships between the enkephalins and the opiates (1 -9). 

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