National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a biomedical research facility primarily located in Bethesda, Maryland. An agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, it is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. The NIH both conducts its own scientific research through its Intramural Research Program (IRP) and provides major biomedical research funding to non-NIH research facilities through its Extramural Research Program.

With 1,200 principal investigators and more than 4,000 postdoctoral fellows in basic, translational, and clinical research, the IRP is the largest biomedical research institution in the world, while, as of 2003, the extramural arm provided 28% of biomedical research funding spent annually in the U.S., or about US$26.4 billion.

The NIH comprises 27 separate institutes and centers that conduct research in different disciplines of biomedical science. The IRP is responsible for many scientific accomplishments, including the discovery of fluoride to prevent tooth decay, the use of lithium to manage bipolar disorder, and the creation of vaccines against hepatitis, Haemophilus influenzae (HIB) and human papillomavirus (HPV).

Nih (town)

Nih was a town belonging to the ancient state of Sistan, which straddles the modern border of Afghanistan and Iran.

In his 1930 book The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, Guy Le Strange wrote:

At some distance to the west of the Zarah lake, on the Kuhistan frontier and close to the border of the Great Desert, is the town of Nih, or Nîh, which is named by earlier Arab geographers as belonging to Sîstân. Muķaddasî mentions it as a strongly fortified town, the houses of which were built of clay, water being brought down from the hills by underground channels. Nih is also referred to by Yâķût and Mustawfî, who, however, add no details, except to state that it was founded by King Ardashîr Bâbgân, though at the present day the remains of great fortifications, and the immense ruins found here, would seem to prove that in the middle-ages it had been a place of much importance.

References

Mirfentanil

Mirfentanil is a fentanyl derivative with strong selectivity for the μ opioid receptor. At lower doses, it antagonizes the analgesic effects of alfentanil and substitutes for naloxone in morphine-treated monkeys; however, it also reverses naloxone-precipitated withdrawal in pigeons trained to discriminate morphine from naloxone.

At high doses, it exhibits analgesic activity which is not fully reversed by opioid antagonists, suggesting that the drug has both opioid and non-opioid mechanisms of action.

Side effects of fentanyl analogs are similar to those of fentanyl itself, which include itching, nausea and potentially serious respiratory depression, which can be life-threatening. Fentanyl analogs have killed hundreds of people throughout Europe and the former Soviet republics since the most recent resurgence in use began in Estonia in the early 2000s, and novel derivatives continue to appear.

Synthesis

Mirfentanil was synthesized via acylation of the product of the reaction of 2-chloropyrazine and 1-(2-phenylethyl)-4-piperidinone oxime with 2-Furoyl chloride.