Study captures an opioid drug (orange) binding to a µ-opioid receptor (green) and activating various signaling proteins (cyan, purple, gold), which produce the effects of opioid drugs, like pain relief and addiction.
Despite using opioids for centuries for pain management, we still don’t have a complete understanding of how drugs like morphine and oxycodone actually work. And that’s a problem for patients, who must weather side effects that can range from nausea and constipation to cognitive impairment,...
