Approaches in Opioid Pharmacology: Toward Safer Pain Management

Opioids are crucial for pain management, but the traditional mu-opioid receptor agonists are associated with considerable risk, such as addiction, overdose, and serious side effects such as respiratory depression. This review aims to emphasize the recent developments in the development of safer opioids, including approaches such as mixed agonists at MOR, KOR, and DOR, biased agonists at MOR, KOR, and DOR, and allosteric modulation. Other approaches, such as peripherally acting opioids and agonists at MOR splice variants, are also discussed as safer options for pain management without the risk of central side effects.