How Morphine works

Scientists claim to have made a major discovery that could lead to more effective treatment of severe pain using morphine, an important pain relief drug. Use of morphine can lead to a range of side effects such as patients developing tolerance to it & increased sensitivity to pain. Until now, how this occurs has remained a mystery. Now the scientists have shown for the 1st time that opioid drugs like morphine activate an immune receptor in the brain to create an inflammatory response in the brain. They've also demonstrated how this brain immune receptor can be blocked, laying the ground-work for development of new therapeutic drugs that improve the effectiveness of morphine while reducing many of its problematic side effects.