7 Your brain is walled off from the rest of your body by a l

7. Your brain is walled off from the rest of your body by a large \"fat\" layer (a fat layer is hydrophobic). This fat layer evolved in order to protect the brain; it hinders the transport of molecules entering the brain from the blood. The human body rapidly breaks down heroin into morphine. The pharmacological effects of both morphine and heroin (analgesia and sedation) occur when morphine interacts with the -opioid receptors in the brain. Heroin itself does not interact with the -opioid receptor. The LogP for heroin and morphine are 2.3 and 0.99, respectively. If patient \"A\"receives an effective dose of morphine, while patient \"B\" receives the same mole amount of heroin, explain why patient \"B\" would feel less pain than patient“A\"?

Solution

As the LogP of heroin is more than that of morphine, the interacting properties of heroin is more than morphine with the opioid receptors which in case increases the pharmacological effect of heroin on brain that\'s why the patient who receives heroin (patient B) would feel less pain as compared to the other patient.