Opioid peptides: potential for drug development

Opioid receptors are important targets for the treatment of pain and potentially for other disease states (e.g. mood disorders and drug abuse) as well. Significant recent advances have been made in identifying opioid peptide analogs that exhibit promising in vivo activity for treatment of these maladies. This review focuses on the development and evaluation of opioid peptide analogs demonstrating activity after systemic administration, and recent clinical evaluations of opioid peptides for possible therapeutic use.