Last Sunday in the science section of the newspaper there was an article about research on a new pain drug. The scientists behind the drug are convinced they have the next great drug. The skeptic in me hopes but doubts it. The reason the news has not made the traditional rounds in in all the reputable medical sites that spread news of discoveries. Furthermore, the work to date is only in animals and there has not been definite evidence this will transfer to humans.
The article discusses the work of Dr. Bruce Hammock, an entomologist at University of California-Davis. In the 1970’s he was working on an enzyme that converted a corn ear-worm to an insect. Removing the enzyme essentially killed the insect before it converted to the moth and was able to breed. Overall this was not found to be a cost effective strategy for this insect to be controlled. Since that part of his work did not pan out, he started looking for how the enzyme or related enzymes might occur in other species. especially humans.
Eventually Dr. Hammock found these compounds in humans and they supposedly reduce pain. Of note, he does not specify what these compounds are, but only says they are chemically broken down rapidly in the body naturally. He then found a way to keep them from being broken down in the body as quickly. Dr. Hammock believes this compound can somehow help relieve pain.
Believe It When We See It
The reason to be skeptic is that naturally this compound that reduces the intensity of pain is very transient in the body by the description given. This makes me believe it is likely easily broken down by chemicals in the body and is in a very limited location. This type of compound is very hard to deliver conveniently (like a pill) into the body and be absorbed. It is also likely to be easily broken down no matter what one does. Lastly, the chemical sounds like it may be something that exists in the nervous system, and thus isolated by something like the blood-brain barrier.
The researchers behind this new novel compound are just looking at starting human trials. So far there has been little funding toward the research from what has been said in the regular press. Further, as noted earlier there is no information in the extensive research pain literature on the animal-level studies discussing this compound. If the research was really promising, more money would be involved without question since pain treatment is a billion dollar industry with huge potentials.
The bottom line is that there is research going on in the field of pain medicine trying to develop new treatments and medications. However, whether any of the current research will lead to new drugs is difficult to guess. A lot of treatments have been proposed but most die as they are tested. Human studies usually take between five and 10 years to complete. Only time will tell if this research will ever lead to a new drug that is useful to treat pain.