LAWRENCE — Kansas University has received a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to build new compounds that could help addicts kick potent habits such as cocaine and heroin. Medicinal chemistry researcher Jeff Aubé said the work will involve looking at the drugs’ molecules and their biological activity. His team has developed and improved five classes of molecules, or chemical compounds, that show promise for treating drug addiction, he said. He says The grant will help the team research how the molecules and compounds work the way they do. The molecules are designed to interact with kappa opioid receptors, located within neurons in the human spine, which play a role in drug dependency. “New molecules that act at that receptor are of interest because that receptor is implicated in a lot of things besides the reduction of pain,” Aubé said. “It’s implicated in addiction behavior because it helps to mediate levels of dopamine that are present in the brain.”
Monday, June 27, 3 p.m.
