methylnaltrexone and Inflammatory-Bowel-Diseases

Opioids have been used for centuries, mostly as a sedative and to treat pain. Currently, they are used on a global scale for the treatment of acute and chronic pain in diseases as osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, and low back pain. Binding of opioids on opioid receptors can cause a range of different effects such as changes in stress response, analgesia, motor activity and autonomic functions. This review provide a synthetic summary of the most recent literature on the use of drugs acting on mu-receptors to treat two prevalent functional bowel disorders, presenting with opposite bowel habit. Eluxadoline and naloxegol, methylnaltrexone and naldemedine are recently FDA and/or EMA approved drugs demonstrated to be effective and safe for treatment respectively of irritable bowel syndrome subtype diarrhea and opioid induced constipation.

Topics: Analgesics, Opioid; Animals; Antidiarrheals; Constipation; Defecation; Diarrhea; Gastrointestinal Motility; Gastrointestinal Tract; Humans; Imidazoles; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; Laxatives; Morphinans; Naltrexone; Narcotic Antagonists; Phenylalanine; Polyethylene Glycols; Quaternary Ammonium Compounds; Receptors, Opioid, mu; Signal Transduction