Nervous system findings could revolutionise pain research
Friday July 29th, 2016
Decades of clinical trials of pain relief targeting a key chemical in the nervous system may have been based on misunderstandings of its role, British researchers have revealed.
Substance P is known to activate pain in the body and researchers had thought that neutralising it could create effective painkillers.
But clinical trials have been a failure - and now Leeds University researchers say they have an explanation.
This is that Substance P only activates pain in the central nervous system. In the peripheral nervous system, it reduces sensations of pain, making neurons less responsive and excitable, they report.
Researcher Professor Nikita Gamper said he was "really surprised" by the findings, discovered in conjunction with Hebei Medical University, China.
The findings come from work on cells in the laboratory and from animal studies and have been reported in the journal Antioxidants and Redox Signaling.
They suggest that Substance P could open the way to develop new pain relief for the peripheral nervous system.
Professor Gamper said: "We’ve discovered a paradox – that in the peripheral nervous system it acts as one of the body’s natural painkillers and actually suppresses pain.
“This means that when drugs were used in trials to suppress Substance P’s action in the central nervous system, they may have also prevented it from acting as a painkiller in the peripheral system. So, although the drugs looked like they worked in the lab, when they moved to clinical trials, they failed.”
He said: “If we could develop a drug to mimic the mechanism that Substance P uses, and ensured it couldn’t pass the blood brain barrier into the central nervous system, so was only active within the peripheral nervous system, it’s likely it could suppress pain with limited side effects.”
Redox-dependent modulation of T-type CA2+ channels in sensory neurons contributes to acute anti-nociceptive effect of Substance P Antioxidants and Redox Signaling 29 July 2016 [abstract]
Tags: Pain Relief | UK News
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