Abstract
There is still an unmet clinical need to develop new pharmaceuticals for effective and safe pain management. Current pharmacotherapy offers unsatisfactory solutions due to serious side effects related to the chronic use of opioid drugs. Prescription opioids produce analgesia through activation of the mu-opioid receptor (MOR) and are major contributors to the current opioid crisis. Multifunctional ligands possessing activity at more than one receptor represent a prominent therapeutic approach for the treatment of pain with fewer adverse effects. We recently reported on the design of a bifunctional MOR agonist/neuropeptide FF receptor (NPFFR) antagonist peptididomimetic, KGFF09 (H-Dmt-DArg-Aba-βAla-Bpa-Phe-NH(2)), and its antinociceptive effects after subcutaneous (s.c.) administration in acute and persistent pain in mice with reduced propensity for unwanted side effects. In this study, we further investigated the antinociceptive properties of KGFF09 in a mouse model of visceral pain after s.c. administration and the potential for opioid-related liabilities of rewarding and sedation/locomotor dysfunction following chronic treatment. KGFF09 produced a significant dose-dependent inhibition of the writhing behavior in the acetic acid-induced writhing assay with increased potency when compared to morphine. We also demonstrated the absence of harmful effects caused by typical MOR agonists, i.e., rewarding effects (conditioned-place preference test) and sedation/locomotor impairment (open-field test), at a dose shown to be highly effective in inhibiting pain behavior. Consequently, KGFF09 displayed a favorable benefit/side effect ratio regarding these opioid-related side effects compared to conventional opioid analgesics, such as morphine, underlining the development of dual MOR agonists/NPFFR antagonists as improved treatments for various pain conditions.