Longevity & AgingBeyond Opioids: Mechanism-Based Targets Poised to Revolutionize Pain Treatment
This comprehensive 2025 review from Harvard's F.M. Kirby Center systematically maps the molecular landscape of nonopioid pain targets. With over 60 million people globally addicted to opioids and 100,000+ annual overdose deaths, the authors argue for mechanism-based analgesics tailored to specific pain subtypes—inflammatory, neuropathic, and nociplastic. Key targets include ion channels, GPCRs, and immune mediators. The review emphasizes that pain is a multisystem phenomenon requiring multimodal interventions, and highlights emerging strategies including gene therapy, stem cell approaches, cell-type-specific neuromodulation, and AI-driven pain assessment tools as the next frontier in safer, more effective analgesia.
