Scientists from Weill Cornell Medicine and the Burke Neurological Institute have found a new drug that may help people who suffer from long-term nerve pain. This type of pain, known as chronic nerve pain or neuropathic pain, can happen when nerves outside the brain and spinal cord are damaged.
It often feels like burning, stabbing, or tingling, and can seriously affect a person’s daily life. Sadly, it’s also very difficult to treat, and the options we have now don’t work well for many people.
The drugs most commonly used today for this kind of pain are gabapentin, which is actually meant for epilepsy, and duloxetine, which is an antidepressant. While they sometimes help, they often cause side effects like dizziness, tiredness, and trouble thinking clearly. Many patients find little relief and have to stop using them.
Another group of drugs often used for pain are opioids. These include medicines like morphine and oxycodone. While they can reduce some types of pain, they’re not very helpful for nerve pain. Worse, they can be highly addictive and even deadly if misused. Because of this, doctors are very cautious about prescribing them.
The new drug developed by the research team offers a different and safer way to treat pain. What makes it so exciting is that it doesn’t belong to the opioid family and doesn’t seem to cause the dangerous side effects seen in other drugs. It was tested in rats and worked well without harming the animals or affecting their behavior in harmful ways.
The idea for the drug came from different areas of research, including an unusual source—oceanography. Scientists discovered that people with nerve pain have overactive nerve cells. These cells send too many signals to the brain, which causes the feeling of pain even when there’s no injury.
At the center of this problem are proteins called HCN ion channels. These proteins are like gates in the nerve cell walls. They help control how signals move in and out of the cells. In people with chronic nerve pain, these gates are stuck open too often.
But here’s the problem: HCN channels are also found in the brain and the heart. So if a drug blocks them everywhere, it can cause dangerous side effects like irregular heartbeat or drowsiness.
Dr. Gareth Tibbs, the lead scientist on this project, came up with a clever solution. He modified a common anesthesia drug called propofol by attaching a special part, like an anchor.
This anchor helps the drug stay in the body’s outer tissues and away from the brain and heart. It’s similar to how an anchor keeps a boat from drifting. The rest of the drug can then settle into the nerve cells and calm them down without affecting other parts of the body.
The new drug is called BP4L-18:1:1. Tests in rodents showed that it can be taken as a pill and still work well. That’s important because taking pills is much easier than getting shots, and it means the drug could be more widely used if it reaches the market.
The researchers are now preparing for more tests to see if it’s safe and effective in humans. If everything goes well, clinical trials could begin soon.
Dr. Steven Fox, one of the people behind the study and founder of a company called Akelos, said this could change the way we treat nerve pain. “It works on the actual cause of pain without bad side effects,” he explained. “That’s a big step forward.”
This project was supported by the Daedalus Fund for Innovation, which helps early research projects grow into real products that companies can develop and bring to the public. If this drug continues to perform well in testing, it could offer new hope to the millions of people who live every day with nerve pain.
The study was published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, and it highlights the exciting future of pain treatment. Instead of only covering up the pain or risking addiction, this drug aims to fix the problem at its source—safely and effectively.
If you care about pain, please read studies about how to manage gout with a low-purine diet, and a guide to eating right for arthritis.
For more health information, please see recent studies about the link between processed foods and chronic diseases, and avoid these 8 foods to ease arthritis pain.
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