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.[1] 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.[2] It binds strongly to the μ-opioid receptor and activates it to a greater extent than most similar opioid drugs.[3] 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[4]
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Formula | C19H23NO4 |
Molar mass | 329.396 g·mol−1 |
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