Featured Paper of the Month – June 2024
Published in Molecular Psychiatry by Marjorie Levinstein and Michael Michaelides, et al. of the NIDA IRP Biobehavioral Imaging and Molecular Neuropsychopharmacology Section.
In this article we performed an in depth in vivo, in vitro, and in silico analysis of (R,S)-methadone and its enantiomers. (S)-methadone is currently in phase III trials as an antidepressant and is frequently referred to as an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, like ketamine. Here we show that (S)-methadone, like (R)-methadone and (R,S)-methadone is an agonist at the mu opioid receptor (MOR) and does not bind to NMDARs at physiologically relevant concentrations.