I am pretty unfamiliar to pharmacology. I\'m doing a research on drug abuse, par

Question

I am pretty unfamiliar to pharmacology. I'm doing a research on drug abuse, particularly opioids' mechanism of action. I encountered several times evidences that come from studies using antagonists especially naloxone that are to prove something is 'a specific opioid effect':

Opioid-induced miosis in the human ... This action is a specific opioid effect as demonstrated by its antagonism by naloxone.

I wanted to know the rationale behind these kind of conclusions. Also an elaboration on the role antagonists play in drug research will be appreciated.

Explanation / Answer

An antagonist is a substance that blocks a particular pathway (a receptor). You can therefore test whether a particular drug acts through the opioid system by using an opioid antagonist. If your substance still works despite the presence of the antagonist (which should block the opoiod receptors), you can conclude that it is not working thorough the opioid system.

Conversely, if your drug is blocked by an opioid antagonist, that is good evidence that your drug works through the opioid system.

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