AI Helps Create Drug to Combat Opioid Addiction, Researcher Develops

Isaiah Richard, Tech Times 19 February 2023, 08:02 pm

Artificial intelligence once again flaunts its skills and capabilities to make the world better, and in this recent study, it enlisted the help of the machine to develop a drug that would help against opioid addiction. There is a significant problem in the United States which points to opioid use, and while there are many treatments already in place, this would help people stay away from it.

People turn to opioids because of their helpful properties, particularly in making a person feel less pain or putting them in a sensation where the pain would be absent, but some go overboard in their use.

AI Helps Create Drug Against Opioid Addiction

(Photo : Steve Buissinne/ Pixabay)

According to the Biophysical Society's News Wise, there is upcoming research that would soon make its way to publishing in its journal this Monday, February 20, detailing the study that would help end opioid reliance in the country.

"Approximately three million Americans suffer from opioid use disorder, and every year more than 80,000 Americans die from overdoses. Opioid drugs, such as heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone and morphine, activate opioid receptors," said the release.

The drug which Leslie Salas Estrada developed in the lab of Marta Filizola, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai aims to help against this.

"After a lot of opioid exposure, your brain gets rewired to need more drugs. Blocking the activity of the kappa opioid receptor has been shown in animal models to reduce this need to use drugs in the withdrawal period," said Salas Estrada.

Researcher Use Deep Learning for Opioids

Salas Estrada said that "Artificial intelligence has the advantage of being able to take huge amounts of information and learn to recognize patterns from it."

She plans to leverage the use of this technology to help further her research and drug development to inhibit the kappa opioid receptor, and to end addiction and withdrawals for patients.

Opioids and their Usage Problem in the US

Opioids are mostly found in legally-prescribed pain relievers present in most pharmacies, and these are used to help against the pain, especially for those undergoing medical treatments and those afflicted with diseases.

In the United States, there is a growing problem where people turn to illegal drugs and synthetic opioids to help with their needs, including the reliance on heroin, morphine, and lab-created fentanyl, codeine, oxycodone, and more.

With this problem at hand, there is much research that centers on treating addiction which is a prevalent situation in the country. Several studies suggest the use of brain implants via deep brain stimulation to fight against it, but there are no conclusive results for now.

In the recent research of Estrada, there is now a studied way to prevent people from falling into the depths of addiction through the use of an alternative drug. It is helpful to those who admit their addiction and wants to take the higher road to end their reliance on opioids, especially with the growing danger to themselves and the people around them.