Thomas Keck
Rowan University, NJ·Pharmacology
Opioids such as morphine are among the best pain medicines available, but they carry serious risks. Patients can develop tolerance, so they need higher doses over time.
- Fields
Pharmacology
Neuroscience
- Topics
pain
analgesia
opioids
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2028
What they work on
- Test whether combining morphine with MP-III-024, a compound that enhances α2/α3 GABA-A receptor signaling, gives stronger pain relief without more tolerance, constipation or respiratory depression in preclinical models.
- Measure the abuse liability, or addiction risk, of MP-III-024 and morphine mixtures in preclinical tests sensitive to opioid side effects.
- Determine whether kappa- or delta-opioid receptors, in addition to mu-opioid receptors, contribute to the pain-relieving effects of MP-III-024 and morphine mixtures.
- Test whether bivalent ligands, single molecules built to target both mu-opioid receptors and α2/α3 GABA-A receptors, relieve pain as a new route for drug development.
More about the research
Opioids also cause constipation, can slow breathing dangerously (respiratory depression), and can lead to addiction. One way around these risks is to pair an opioid with a second drug that boosts pain relief without boosting the harms. That would let patients get relief from a lower opioid dose.
Why it matters
People with acute or chronic pain may benefit from treatments that relieve pain with lower opioid doses. Lower doses could reduce the risk of respiratory depression, tolerance, constipation, dependence and addiction. If the combination of morphine and MP-III-024 holds up, it could guide the development of safer pain medicines, including single-molecule drugs that act on both the opioid and GABA systems.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Charles France
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, TX·Pharmacology
Submit an Investigational New Drug application to the FDA for methocinnamox (MCAM), a long-acting mu-opioid receptor blocker, to prevent opioid relapse after detoxification.
Madepalli Lakshmana
Florida International University, FL·Neuroscience
Synthesize six sets of structurally varied TPI-132 analogs and select two with stronger activation of TFEB, a master switch for cellular recycling, plus lower toxicity and better brain penetration and solubility.
Aliza Ehrlich
Virginia Commonwealth University, VA·Neuroscience
Determine how agonist-induced desensitization, internalization and phosphorylation regulate the mu opioid receptor (MOR) at the neuronal primary cilium, the cell's antenna-like projection.
The school
Rowan University: 7 labs on PI Pages, $64M a year on research, 69 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.