Stevenson lab students present poster at American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics’ Experimental Biology meeting in Chicago

Janell Lanpher (Psychology, ’17), Abby Kinens (Psychology, ’17) and Philomena Richard (Neuroscience, ’18) presented a poster at the Experimental Biology 2017 national meeting in Chicago, Illinois, on April 25. All three students are current full-time research assistants in the behavioral pharmacology laboratory of Glenn W. Stevenson, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychology and program coordinator for the Neuroscience major.

The students presented data on the interactions between selective delta and mu opioid receptor drugs on novel analgesic (therapeutic) and sedation (side effect) behavioral endpoints. The first fixed-ratio mixture tested produced super-additive analgesic effects and simple additive sedation effects, indicating an enhanced therapeutic index (drug safety) relative to drugs alone. These studies help inform structure-activity design for development of novel and safer opioid pain relievers. Future studies will be characterizing the neural substrates that mediate these delta /mu interactions in concert with collaborators at University of Arizona.

The experimental delta opioid drug was synthesized by collaborator and co-author Kenner C. Rice, Ph.D., chief of Drug Design and Synthesis Section, Molecular Targets and Medications Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, of the National Institutes of Health (NIDA, NIAAA, NIH).