Regulonix is an early stage firm that has licensed from the University of Arizona College of Medicine: Tucson a new class of non-opioid compounds to treat pain for which theywere themslevs the inventors. With animal testing haing shown the drug candidates to be more effective than morphine, non-addictive, and non-toxic at high doses. The UA has licensed the compounds to startup Regulonix. With chronic pain iwidely prevalent, and opioid misuse and overdose now constituting major public health crises, the effort is to provide physicians with viable alternative options. Key to the UA technology is a focus on the NaV1.7 "sodium channel," a part of the nerve cell membrane that has been linked to human pain disorders and that is not the primary target for opioids. Compounds selected for further development by Regulonix primarily affect the NaV1.7 sodium channel indirectly through a protein called CRMP2, or collapsing response mediator protein 2, leaving the other channels relatively unaffected and thus not creating the corresponding negative effects.
