chemical pathway

(Scripps Research Institute) Marijuana can be an effective painkiller, but social issues and unhealthy smoke inhalation complicate its use.

As a result, researchers have focused great attention on understanding the biochemical system involved so they might manipulate it by other means.

Toward that end, a Scripps Research Institute group has definitively identified a chemical pathway that, in mice, imitates marijuana's painkilling effect.

The work could enable the development of new pain treatments.

(Duke University Medical Center) A newly discovered chemical pathway that helps protect heart tissue can be stimulated by two of 20 common beta-blockers, drugs that are prescribed to millions of patients who have experienced heart failure.