In a new study, researchers have developed a new way to treat chronic pain.
With a compound designed and developed by the researchers themselves, they can achieve complete pain relief.
The research was conducted by a team from the University of Copenhagen.
Chronic pain can occur, among other things, after surgery, in people with diabetes, after a blood clot, and after amputation in the form of phantom pain.
Between 7-10% of the world’s population suffers from chronic pain originating from nerves that have been damaged.
For more than a decade, the researchers have been working to design, develop, and test a drug that shall provide complete pain relief.
According to the team, the new treatment does not affect the general neuronal singling, but only affects the nerve changes that are caused by the disease.
The compound developed by the researchers is a so-called peptide named Tat-P4-(C5)2. The peptide is targeted and only affects the nerve changes that pose a problem and cause the pain.
In a previous study, the researchers have shown in an animal model that use of the peptide can also reduce addiction.
Therefore, they hope that the compound may potentially help pain patients who have become addicted to, for example, opioid pain relievers in particular.
The team says the compound works very efficiently, and they do not see any side effects.
They can administer this peptide and obtain complete pain relief in the mouse model we have used, without the lethargic effect that characterizes existing pain-relieving drugs.
Their next step is to work towards testing the treatment on people. The goal is to develop a drug, therefore the plan is to establish a biotech company as soon as possible so we can focus on this.
One author of the study is Kenneth Lindegaard Madsen, Associate Professor at the Department of Neuroscience.
The study is published in the scientific journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.
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