title: The design of multitarget ligands for chronic and neuropathic pain.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Monodrug therapy has been used with success to fight various pathologies. When one medicine fails, co-administration of two or more drugs at the same time may be successfully applied in the treatment of infections, hypertension, HIV and in many other fields.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This approach has some weakness related to the pharmacokinetic of the two different substances administered, side effects, possible drug-drug interaction. Bivalent ligand approach would maintain the strength of the multidrug therapy (synergistic effect, lower doses, and little side effects) and overcome the weakness of a co-administration.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this review we have described the state-of-the-art of the multitarget approach for the control of pain. Several approaches adopted by different research groups and future perspectives have been discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 6726, Szeged, Hungary.
authors.forename: Szabolcs
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dvoracsko
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Sapienza, Università di Roma, P.le A. Moro 5, 00187, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Azzurra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stefanucci
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università di Napoli 'Federico II,' Via D. Montesano, 49, 80131, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Ettore
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Novellino
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università di Chieti-Pescara 'G. d'Annunzio,' Via dei Vestini 31, 66100, Chieti, Italy.
authors.forename: Adriano
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mollica
mesh_terms: D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D008024:Ligands; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands