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. 2024 Feb 20:15:1359851.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1359851. eCollection 2024.

Are carfentanil and acrylfentanyl naloxone resistant?

Michael G Feasel  1 , Theodore S Moran  2 , Boyle C Cheng  3 , Saadyah Averick  3
Affiliations

Are carfentanil and acrylfentanyl naloxone resistant?

Michael G Feasel et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

The rapid rise in deaths since 2012 due to opioid poisoning is correlated with the proliferation of potent synthetic opioid agonists such as fentanyl, acrylfentanyl, and carfentanil. The efficacy of frontline antidotes such as naloxone in reversing such poisoning events has been questioned, and the possibility of naloxone-resistant synthetic opioids has been raised. In this manuscript, we applied in vitro techniques to establish the median effective inhibitory concentrations for fentanyl, acrylfentanyl, and carfentanil and subsequently evaluate naloxone's ability to reverse agonist-receptor interactions.

Keywords: fentanyl; in vitro; naloxone; opioid; overdose.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemical structures of fentanyl (black), acrylfentanyl (blue), and carfentanil (red).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Dose–response curves for [d-Ala2,NMe-Phe4,Gly-ol5]-enkephalin (DAMGO), fentanyl, carfentanil, and acrylfentanyl. Data points plotted as mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Inhibition dose–response curves for naloxone against challenges of the EC90 for each agonist. Data points plotted as mean ± SEM.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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