Molecular modelling of fentanyl analogs

Abstract

Fentanyl is a highly potent and clinically widely used narcotic analgesic. A large number of its analogs have been synthesized, some of which (sufentanil and alfentanyl) are also in clinical use. Theoretical studies, in recent years, afforded a better understanding of the structure-activity relationships of this class of opiates and allowed insight into the molecular mechanism of the interactions of fentanyl analogs with their receptors. An overview of the current computational techniques for modeling fentanyl analogs, their receptors and ligand-receptor interactions is presented in this paper.

Keywords

• fentanyl analogs
• molecular modeling
• μ-receptor
• ligand-receptor interactions