Salvinorin A is the main active psychotropic molecule in Salvia divinorum. Salvinorin A is considered a dissociative hallucinogen.
Ohmefentanyl is an extremely potent opioid analgesic drug which selectively binds to the μ-opioid receptor.
Dihydroetorphine was developed by K. W. Bentley at McFarlan-Smith in the 1960s and is a potent opioid analgesic used mainly in China. It is a derivative of the better-known opioid etorphine, a very potent veterinary painkiller and anesthetic medication used primarily for the sedation of large animals such as elephants, giraffes, and rhinos.
Nalorphine is a mixed opioid agonist–antagonist with opioid antagonist and analgesic properties. It was introduced in 1954 and was used as an antidote to reverse opioid overdose and in a challenge test to determine opioid dependence.
Lofentanil or lofentanyl is one of the most potent opioid analgesics known and is an analogue of fentanyl, which was developed in 1960. It is most similar to the highly potent opioid carfentanil (4-carbomethoxyfentanyl), only slightly more potent. Lofentanil can be described as 3-methylcarfentanil, or 3-methyl-4-carbomethoxyfentanyl. While 3-methylfentanyl is considerably more potent than fentanyl itself, lofentanil is only slightly stronger than carfentanil. This suggests that substitution at both the 3 and 4 positions of the piperidine ring introduces steric hindrance which prevents μ-opioid affinity from increasing much further. As with other 3-substituted fentanyl derivatives such as ohmefentanyl, the stereoisomerism of lofentanil is very important, with some stereoisomers being much more potent than others.
Enadoline is a drug which acts as a highly selective κ-opioid agonist.
14-Methoxymetopon is an experimental opioid drug developed by a team led by Professor Helmut Schmidhammer at the University of Innsbruck in the mid-1990s. It is a derivative of metopon in which a methoxy group has been inserted at the 14-position. It is a highly potent analgesic drug that is around 500 times stronger than morphine when administered systemically; however, when given spinally or supraspinally, it exhibits analgesic activity up to a million fold greater than morphine. It binds strongly to the μ-opioid receptor and activates it to a greater extent than most similar opioid drugs. This produces an unusual pharmacological profile, and although 14-methoxymetopon acts as a potent μ-opioid full agonist in regard to some effects such as analgesia, a ceiling effect is seen on other effects such as constipation and respiratory depression which is believed to involve interaction with the κ-opioid receptor.
14-Phenylpropoxymetopon (PPOM) is an opioid analogue that is a derivative of metopon which has been substituted with a γ-phenylpropoxy group at the 14-position. PPOM is a highly potent analgesic drug several thousand times stronger than morphine, with an even higher in vivo potency than etorphine. The 14-phenylpropoxy substitution appears to confer potent μ-opioid agonist activity, even when combined with substitutions such as N-cyclopropyl or N-allyl, which normally result in μ-opioid antagonist compounds.
RWJ-394674 is a drug that is used in scientific research. It is a potent, orally active analgesic drug that produces little respiratory depression. RWJ-394674 itself is a potent and selective agonist for δ-opioid receptors, with a Ki of 0.24 nM at δ and 72 nM at μ. However once inside the body, RWJ-394674 is dealkylated to its monodesethyl metabolite RWJ-413216, which is a potent agonist at the μ-opioid receptor and has less affinity for δ. The effect of RWJ-394674 when administered in vivo thus produces potent agonist effects at both μ and δ receptors through the combined actions of the parent drug and its active metabolite, with the δ-agonist effects counteracting the respiratory depression from the μ-opioid effects, and the only prominent side-effect being sedation.
HZ-2 is a drug which acts as a highly selective κ-opioid agonist. It is a potent analgesic with around the same potency as morphine, with a long duration of action and high oral bioavailability. Side effects include sedation, nausea and dysphoria as well as diuretic effects.
β-Chlornaltrexamine (β-CNA) is a non-selective irreversible antagonist of the μ-opioid receptor (MOR), the δ-opioid receptor (DOR), and the κ-opioid receptor (KOR), which forms a covalent bond to the binding sites of these receptors and has ultra-long-lasting opioid antagonist effects. Although it is predominantly antagonistic, β-CNA also shows some irreversible mixed agonist–antagonist activity at the MOR and KOR and some associated analgesic effects. Its alkylating group is a bis(chloroalkyl)amino-residue similar to that of the nitrogen mustards.
Conorfone, also known as conorphone and codorphone, as well as conorphone hydrochloride (USAN), is an opioid analgesic that was never marketed. It is an analogue of hydrocodone substituted with an 8-ethyl group and an N-cyclopropylmethyl group. It acts as a mixed agonist-antagonist at the μ-opioid receptor, and is slightly more potent than codeine in analgesic effects, but associated with somewhat greater side effects.
Salvinorin B methoxymethyl ether is a semi-synthetic analogue of the natural product salvinorin A used in scientific research. It has a longer duration of action of around 2–3 hours, compared to less than 30 minutes for salvinorin A, and has increased affinity and potency at the κ-opioid receptor. It is prepared from salvinorin B. The crystal structure is almost superimposable with that of salvinorin A. Structures bound to the κ-opioid receptor have also been reported.
IBNtxA, or 3-iodobenzoyl naltrexamine, is an atypical opioid analgesic drug derived from naltrexone. In animal studies it produces potent analgesic effects that are blocked by levallorphan and so appear to be μ-opioid mediated, but it fails to produce constipation or respiratory depression, and is neither rewarding or aversive in conditioned place preference protocols. These unusual properties are thought to result from agonist action at a splice variant or heterodimer of the μ-opioid receptor, rather than at the classical full length form targeted by conventional opioid drugs.
Biphalin is a dimeric enkephalin endogenous peptide (Tyr-D-Ala-Gly-Phe-NH)2 composed of two tetrapeptides derived from enkephalins, connected 'tail-to-tail' by a hydrazide bridge. The presence of two distinct pharmacophores confers on biphalin a high affinity for both μ and δ opioid receptors (with an EC50 of about 1–5 nM for both μ and δ receptors), therefore it has analgesic activity. Biphalin presents a considerable antinociceptive profile. In fact, when administered intracerebroventricularly in mice, biphalin displays a potency almost 7-fold greater than that of the ultra-potent alkaloid agonist, etorphine and 7000-fold greater than morphine; biphalin and morphine were found to be equipotent after intraperitoneal administration. The extraordinary in vivo potency shown by this compound is coupled with low side-effects, in particular, to produce no dependency in chronic use. For these reasons, several efforts have been carried out in order to obtain more information about structure-activity relationship (SAR). Results clearly indicate that, at least for μ receptor binding, the presence of two pharmacophores is not necessary; Tyr1 is indispensable for analgesic activity, while replacing Phe at the position 4 and 4' with non-aromatic, but lipophilic amino acids does not greatly change the binding properties and in general 4,4' positions are found to be important to design biphalin analogues with increased potency and modified μ/δ selectivity. The hydrazide linker is not fundamental for activity or binding, and it can be conveniently substituted by different conformationally constrained cycloaliphatic diamine linkers.
Butyrfentanyl or butyrylfentanyl is a potent short-acting synthetic opioid analgesic drug. It is an analog of fentanyl with around one quarter of its potency. One of the first mentions of this drug can be found in document written by The College on Problem of Drug Dependence, where it is mentioned as N-butyramide fentanyl analog. This document also states that the article describing its clinical effects was published in 1987. It is an agonist for the μ-opioid receptors.
RB-64 is a semi-synthetic derivative of salvinorin A. It is an irreversible agonist, with a reactive thiocyanate group that forms a bond to the κ-opioid receptor (KOR), resulting in very high potency. It is functionally selective, activating G proteins more potently than β-arrestin-2. RB-64 has a bias factor of up to 96 and is analgesic with fewer of the side-effects associated with unbiased KOR agonists. The analgesia is long-lasting. Compared with unbiased agonists, RB-64 evokes considerably less receptor internalization.
Cebranopadol is an opioid analgesic of the benzenoid class which is currently under development internationally by Grünenthal, a German pharmaceutical company, and its partner Depomed, a pharmaceutical company in the United States, for the treatment of a variety of different acute and chronic pain states. As of November 2014, it is in phase III clinical trials.
HS665 is a drug which acts as a potent and selective κ-opioid receptor agonist, and has analgesic effects in animal studies. HS665 is not an agonist for the mu receptor, leading to less potential for abuse.
Etoetonitazene is a benzimidazole derivative with opioid effects, first developed in the 1950s as part of the research that led to better-known compounds such as etonitazene. It is an analogue of etonitazene where the ethoxy sidechain has been extended to ethoxyethoxy. It is less potent than other benzimidazole class opioids, but is still a potent mu opioid receptor agonist with around 50x the potency of morphine, and has been sold as a designer drug since around 2022.
