Abstract
There are three major opioid receptors in the central nervous system: mu, kappa, and delta, the genes for which have been cloned. There are also possible subtypes within each class, although separate genes have not yet been cloned for any subtypes. Opioids are both the natural opiates and their synthetic congeners which are the class of agonist and antagonist drugs with primarily morphine-like activity mostly at the mu opioid receptor, and also the other naturally occurring endogenous and synthetic opioid peptides, which act also at the other receptor types.
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Borg, L., Kreek, M.J. (1998). Pharmacology of Opiates. In: Tarter, R.E., Ammerman, R.T., Ott, P.J. (eds) Handbook of Substance Abuse. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2913-9_23
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