{"id":36388,"date":"2025-02-23T21:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T02:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=36388"},"modified":"2025-02-24T14:44:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T19:44:06","slug":"neuroscience-grads-studied-how-to-make-opioids-safer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/neuroscience-grads-studied-how-to-make-opioids-safer\/","title":{"rendered":"Neuroscience grads studied how to make opioids safer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> show there were about 107,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2023. Of those, about 75 percent, or 81,000, involved opioids.<\/p>\n

\"a

Lauren Jones ’22.<\/p><\/div>\n

With the aim of reducing those statistics, Lauren Jones \u201922, who is in a post-baccalaureate at Harvard University, Brenna Outten \u201922, a third-year doctoral student at Caltech and Leah Juechter \u201924, who is working temporarily as a medical assistant, used computational chemistry as undergraduates at Furman to study the impacts of synthetic opioids.<\/p>\n

Their work, with collaborators at Hendrix College and California State University, Los Angeles, was published in December in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To say the project was formative for Jones and Outten is an understatement. They laid the foundation for the study during the height of COVID when traditional wet labs were all but shuttered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing we were able to continue the work virtually during the pandemic,\u201d said Jones, who researches sensory processing in children with autism and brain activity in children with rare neurodevelopmental and neurogenetic disorders at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Outten said the project \u201copened my eyes to how a scientist can contribute to fields like neuroscience, chemistry, biology and physics in ways I had never considered before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paper focuses on work targeting the mu opioid receptor, or MOR. It resides mainly in the central nervous system and the GI tract. It\u2019s like a molecular lock waiting for the right key (a drug like morphine or fentanyl) to unlock or activate a favorable response, such as reduced pain signals. But the same drugs can activate negative responses like drug tolerance, constipation, respiratory depression, addiction and overdose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot we don\u2019t understand about how opioids interact with the receptors embedded on nerves that mitigate the pain-signaling process,\u201d Juechter said. \u201cSo the more we can uncover about how these drugs are interacting with the receptors in our bodies and the responses we feel, the better we\u2019re able to help create pain therapeutics with reduced adverse effects and more beneficial safety profiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

What makes the researchers\u2019 study unique is the application of both quantum mechanics conducted by Juechter, Outten and Jones, led by chemistry Professor George Shields, and molecular dynamics carried out by teams at Cal State and Hendrix College.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was interesting to see two drugs (morphine and fentanyl) that elicit almost identical effects are binding to the receptor in completely different ways,\u201d Juechter said. \u201cAnd to demonstrate that with highly accurate quantum mechanics was one of the first times we\u2019ve seen that done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A

Leah Juechter ’24.<\/p><\/div>\n

The manner in which opioids bind to MOR is diverse and complex. \u201cSo the need for a precise computing model becomes essential,\u201d Juechter explained. \u201cEven slight variations in calculations can drastically affect the data and subsequent conclusions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ability to do research computationally can make drug development faster and cheaper, Juechter added. \u201cBeing able to paint the picture of what\u2019s going on using empirically-supported mathematical theories, we can streamline the initial process of drug development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Impactful undergraduate research is a hallmark of The Furman Advantage<\/a>, a four-year approach to education that creates a pathway for students to determine who they want to be and how they want to contribute to the world once they leave the university.<\/p>\n

Juechter spent about eight months post-graduation fine-tuning the work with her coauthors before the paper was published.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was exceedingly evident Dr. Shields wanted to elevate me and give me the opportunity to pursue research,\u201d Outten said.<\/p>\n

Juechter hopes the project will set the tone for organic chemists involved in drug research and development.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want a role in the health care industry because I like the idea of affecting someone\u2019s life in real time, in a positive way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Working in George Shields lab, Lauren Jones ’22, Brenna Outten ’22 and Leah Juechter ’24 applied computational chemistry methods to understand the ways in which opioids bind to receptors. They hope the research leads to safer drugs for treating chronic pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":36401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,53,2711,79,35,61,55],"tags":[126,3261,3260,1226,2985,1272,3259,3257,3256,3255,3262,3258,2744,1228],"class_list":["post-36388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-chemistry","category-engaged-learning","category-neuroscience","category-parent-news","category-the-furman-advantage","category-undergraduate-research","tag-addiction","tag-california-state-university","tag-caltech","tag-fentanyl","tag-george-shields","tag-harvard","tag-hendrix-college","tag-mor","tag-morphine","tag-mu-opioid-receptor","tag-overdose","tag-pain-mitigation","tag-quantum-mechanics","tag-synthetic-opioids"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36388"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36402,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36388\/revisions\/36402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}