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Designer cannabinoids could be the key to pain relief without adverse effects

Current approaches to pain relief are falling short. Chemically modifying a synthetic cannabinoid could enable scientists to capitalize on the body’s natural pain-killing pathway without evoking drug tolerance or psychoactivity.
By
  1. Iain R. Greig

    1. Iain R. Greig is at the Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD, Scotland.

  2. Ruth A. Ross

    1. Ruth A. Ross is in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C8, Canada.

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High on the list of aspirations in medical science is to find a way to tap into the therapeutic benefits of potent painkillers without the problematic side effects associated with their use — such as tolerance (needing progressively larger doses for the same effect), and the development of substance-use disorder. Like opioid receptors, cannabinoid receptors are part of the body’s natural response to pain1. Writing in Nature, Rangari et al.2 report that a modified version of a powerful synthetic cannabinoid molecule — one of the many constituents of ‘spice’, a prominent drug of misuse3 — can provide sustained pain relief in mice, seemingly without the anticipated side effects at therapeutic doses.

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Nature 640, 45-46 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00546-w

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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