Researchers at LSU Health New Orleans Neuroscience Center of Excellence and colleagues have discovered a new class of pipeline drugs to relieve pain and reduce fever without the danger of addiction or damage to the liver or kidneys. The research is published online in the European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Current drugs have unwanted side effects. Opioids can not only cause addiction; recent studies have shown they can be no more effective at relieving pain than non-narcotic drugs. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) can cause kidney damage. Acetaminophen is an effective drug, but overuse can result in liver damage.
The research team, led by Drs. Hernan A. Bazan, a professor in the Department of Surgery and Program Director of the Vascular Surgery Fellowship at Ochsner Clinic, and Surjyadipta Bhattacharjee, a post-doctoral researcher at the LSU Health New Orleans Neuroscience Center of Excellence, set out to discover what causes the liver damage associated with acetaminophen and then create a drug structurally similar to acetaminophen -- as effective, but without liver toxicity. Along with the chemistry team led by Professor Julio Alvarez-Builla, Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Alcala in Madrid, they tested 21 different compounds as acetaminophen analogs.Read more
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