More than 36,000 North Carolinians lost their lives to drug overdose from 2000 - 2002. This statistic is staggering and continues to affect families across the state in devastating ways.
The UNC School of Medicine is actively working to address this crisis and mitigate its effects on North Carolinians. UNC School of Medicine faculty members have created a robust method of addressing this crisis, including a mobile addiction treatment clinic to address community issues in real time, lab work on preventative measures and redesigning opioids.
Faculty members are focusing on this epidemic's past, present and future to tackle the issue entirely.
Mobile Opioid Clinic
In Robeson County, opioid overdoses per year nearly double the statewide rate. Robyn Jordan, MD, PhD, is an addiction medicine specialist and an assistant professor of psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine. She is the director of UNC School of Medicine's Addiction Medicine Program and she led the development of a mobile clinic in Lumberton called ATLAS, Addiction Treatment: Linking Access & Services.
The clinic was funded by Vital Strategies and the Duke Energy Foundation. It visits the Lumberton area weekly to provide services including medications for opioid use disorder, treatment from board-certified doctors and access to peer support specialists and social workers. The clinic has expanded treatment options in the area and has served nearly 20 patients a week since its inception.
Addiction Treatment
The School of Medicine is also developing treatments for addiction.
Christian Hendershot, PhD, is an associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Clinical and Translational Addiction Research Program at the UNC School of Medicine. He has researched ways to treat substance use disorders with the use of semaglutide, a drug primarily used for the treatment of diabetes and weight loss.
Early studies have shown that semaglutide can reduce the rewarding effects of addictive drugs. Hendershot is currently leading two randomized clinical trials on this potential treatment but specifies that although this research is promising, rigorous testing to understand the safety of this possible treatment is imperative.
New Pain Medications
Another facet of this crisis is the opioids themselves.
Bryan Roth, MD, PhD, has worked with colleagues to create a new drug-like compound that activates a specific receptor that could lead to the development of better pain medications. This discovery shows how scientists can create an opioid that relieves pain without causing the severe side effects that come with opioid use. Roth and his team found that to create better opioids, they could use their findings on the structure of the activated kappa opioid receptor to make a drug-like compound with safer results than current opioids.
This finding can lead to the future development of drugs that decrease addiction and cause of death due to overdose.
Zoe McElligott, PhD, is another faculty member actively researching ways to combat how drugs interact with receptors. McElligott and her team of colleagues noticed that in recent years, overdoses due to fentanyl have increased dramatically. Authorities found many of these overdoses were caused by fentanyl-laced with the animal tranquilizer xylazine.
Many public health officials believed that xylazine could hinder the effects of naloxone, the medication that can reverse an overdose from opioids. After further research, McElligott and her team discovered that xylazine activates opioid receptors the same way as fentanyl. This discovery helps scientists better understand why withdrawal from this combination of drugs is so challenging and causes such devastating effects for users.
This research has significant implications, including further understanding of treatment for future patients. It also emphasizes the importance of administering naloxone as a life-saving treatment, as data suggests that xylazine does respond to the treatment. McElligott's research increases knowledge of the importance of the use of life-saving overdose treatment.
The faculty at UNC's School of Medicine understands the severity of the opioid epidemic. Their research, development and outreach have helped to pave the way for life-saving treatment for North Carolina's citizens. Researching current opioids, developing safer opioids, finding more accessible treatment options and expanding treatment in areas of high need all work to create a comprehensive pathway for addressing an epidemic that impacts so many.
