Abstract

OPIORPHIN AS ENDOGENOUS PEPTIDE OF HUMAN SALIVA ACTS AS INHIBITOR OF PROTEASE ENZYMES OF ENKEPHALINS

Kinsuk Sarker and Prof. Dr. Dhrubo Jyoti Sen

Abstract

Saliva from humans has yielded a natural painkiller up to six times more powerful than morphine, researchers say. The substance, dubbed opiorphin, may spawn a new generation of natural painkillers that relieve pain as well as cartier replica uk cheap replica watches replica watches uk cheap cartier watches repliche orologi orologi repliche repliche rolex rolex repliche orologi rolex falsi replica breitling morphine but without the addictive and psychological side effects of the traditional drug. When the researchers injected a pain-inducing chemical into rats’ paws, 1 milligram of opiorphin per kilogram of body weight achieved the same painkilling effect as 3 milligrams of morphine. The substance was so successful at blocking pain that, in a test involving a platform of upended pins, the rats needed six times as much morphine as opiorphin to render them oblivious to the pain of standing on the needle points. It’s pain-suppressive effect is like that of morphine. It may also be an anti-depressive molecule. Opiorphin works in nerve cells of the spine by stopping the usual destruction of natural pain-killing opiates there, called enkephalins. Opiorphin is such a simple molecule that it should be possible to synthesize it and produce large quantities without having to isolate it from saliva. Alternatively, it might be possible to find drugs which trigger patients’ bodies to produce more of the molecule themselves.

Keywords: Opiorphin, Peptide, Glutamine, Arginine, Phenyl alanine, Serine, Ectoendopeptidase, Ecto-aminopeptidase-N, Dipeptidyl peptidase, Enkephalin, Met-enkephalin, Leu-enkephalin.