Researchers at Kyoto University (Japan) have created a powerful new generation painkiller that does not cause addiction and dangerous side effects characteristic of opioids. The drug, called ADRIANA, is described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal.

The drug has already successfully passed clinical trials on volunteers and patients who have undergone surgery. Unlike morphine and other traditional painkillers, ADRIANA works on a different principle. It affects certain structures of the nervous system—the adrenoreceptors. The latter are responsible for the body's reaction to substances such as adrenaline and noradrenaline.

The new drug blocks the α2B-adrenoreceptor subtype, which leads to an increase in the level of noradrenaline, a substance that participates in the transmission of signals in the brain. This, in turn, activates the α2A-adrenoreceptors, which are responsible for reducing pain sensitivity. This mechanism enables to relieve pain without severe side effects, such as hypoventilation, addiction, or heart problems.

After successful preclinical tests, clinical trials were conducted in phases I and II, which included patients who underwent surgery to remove a lung tumor. In the future, a large-scale trial will also be conducted in the US in collaboration with BTB Therapeutics.

According to the developers, ADRIANA can become the first Japanese non-opioid painkiller and play an important role in the fight against the global "opioid crisis."