JAMES ZADINA
The work of 1973 UNO graduate James Zadina just might be the answer to the nation’s opioid crisis. A professor of medicine, neuroscience and pharmacology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Zadina in 1997 was part of a research team that discovered endomorphin messengers that act like a “magic bullet” to unlock a natural, morphine-like, painkilling effect in the brain and spinal cord. He and his team have spent the 21 years since then trying to develop a painkiller that can rival the power of morphine without the often disastrous side effects. They think they’re close. Findings published in the journal Neuropharmacology reveal a compound that Zadina’s team developed is a safer, superior alternative to morphine when tested in rats. “We have shown that it produces pain relief of equal or greater duration relative to morphine, but with substantially reduced side effects,” Zadina said in a 2017 article published on drugrehab.org. Zadina, also director of the Neuroscience Laboratory at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System, knows success can’t come soon enough. On average, more than 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is estimated that opioid misuse costs $78.5 billion annually.