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Papers of the Week


Papers: 25 Feb 2023 - 3 Mar 2023

RESEARCH TYPE:
Basic Science


Animal Studies, Molecular/Cellular, Neurobiology, Pharmacology/Drug Development


2023 Feb 27


Sci Rep


36849491


13


1

Analgesic effects of a highly selective mPGES-1 inhibitor.

Authors

Stewart MJ, Weaver LM, Ding K, Kyomuhangi A, Loftin CD, Zheng F, Zhan CG

Abstract

The growing opioid use and overdose crisis in the US is closely related to the abuse of pain medications. Particularly for postoperative pain (POP), ~ 310 million major surgeries are performed globally per year. Most patients undergoing surgical procedures experience acute POP, and ~ 75% of those with POP report the severity as moderate, severe, or extreme. Opioid analgesics are the mainstay for POP management. It is highly desirable to develop a truly effective and safe non-opioid analgesic to treat POP and other forms of pain. Notably, microsomal prostaglandin E2 (PGE) synthase-1 (mPGES-1) was once proposed as a potentially promising target for a next generation of anti-inflammatory drugs based on studies in mPGES-1 knockouts. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have ever been reported to explore whether mPGES-1 is also a potential target for POP treatment. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time that a highly selective mPGES-1 inhibitor can effectively relieve POP as well as other forms of pain through blocking the PGE overproduction. All the data have consistently demonstrated that mPGES-1 is a truly promising target for treatment of POP as well as other forms of pain.