STUDY OF THE CHEMICAL STRUCTURE OF OPIOIDS AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIVITY Julia Christina Cardoso Sampaio Silva, Monique Oliveira da Silva, José Eduardo Pandini Cardoso Filho

Abstract

Opium is a dense, white juice extracted from a herbaceous plant called Papaver somniferum (Poppy), a plant that contains around 25 alkaloids, one of which, Morphine, is derived from phenanthrene, acting on the Central Nervous System. Despite the extensive use of opium during antiquity, Morphine was only isolated in 1803, being commercialized as an analgesic in 1820. From 1925 onwards, a phase of intensive work began aimed at its molecular modification to obtain better analgesics. With this in mind, this work aims to compare the chemical structures of opioids and Morphine, highlighting their structural changes and establishing a causal relationship between chemical structure and pharmacological activity, facilitating the development of new drugs. This is a bibliographical review collecting data from scientific articles, physical books, dissertations and magazines, using Google Scholar, Scientific Library Science (SciELO) and the main books such as Pharmaceutical Chemistry by Andreus Korolkovas and Joseph H. Burckhalter and Goodman & Gilman's Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. The chemical structures of the drugs Oxycodone, Codeine, Buprenorphine and Naltrexone and the synthetic drug Heroin were observed and a predominance of similarity with the chemical structure of Morphine was noted, however modifications were found in positions 3, 6, 7, 14 and 17, each of them altering specific parameters such as increasing or decreasing the depressant action on the central nervous system and drug potency. Through the data presented, it is noted that the chemical structures are strictly related to the activity of the drug, changing parameters such as potency of analgesic action, increased stimulating action and increased antitussive action. Therefore, knowledge of these structural changes and their possible effects on pharmacology and/or pharmacokinetics is important for the development of new drugs.