chronic pain study Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Minnesota Physical Medicine Blog

Although I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of spiders, new research suggests that spider venom may actually hold the key to unlocking chronic pain.

According to the study conducted by researchers at the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, certain spider venoms contain seven compounds that could be therapeutic for some chronic pain sufferers. Study co-author Professor Glenn King said the key to alleviating chronic pain lies in the Nav1.7 channel, and area associated with pain and inflammation in humans.

“A compound that blocks Nav1.7 channels is of particular interest for us,” said King. “Previous research shows indifference to pain among people who lack Nav1.7 channels due to a naturally-occurring genetic mutation — so blocking these channels has the potential of turning off pain in people with normal pain pathways.”

Spider Venom Benefits

Now if you’re suffering from chronic pain, I don’t recommend that you go out and get bit by any old spider, but the science behind spider venom for chronic pain is intriguing. There are more than 45,000 species of spiders in the world, all with hundreds or thousands of different proteins in their venom. Some of these proteins have the ability to block nerve activity, but scientists haven’t conducted a lot of research on these compounds or their medical potential. Dr. Julie Kaae Klint, co-author of the study, said we need to continue testing all these available compounds.

“A conservative estimate indicates that there are nine million spider-venom peptides, and only 0.01% of this vast pharmacological landscape has been explored so far,” said. Dr. Klint.

Examining all nine million peptides individually would take years or decades, so researchers came up with a simpler solution. The screened venom from 206 different species of spiders and found that nearly half of the venom contained at least one compound that blocked human Nav1.7 channels. Seven specific compounds proved especially promising, and one of these compounds actually showcased chemical, thermal and biological stability. These three stabilities are necessary when designing a new drug.

Considering that chronic pain affects one in five people worldwide, this natural resource could be a huge gamechanger for those suffering from chronic conditions.

“Untapping this natural source of new medicines brings a distinct hope of accelerating the development of a new class of painkillers that can help people who suffer from chronic pain that cannot be treated with current treatment options,” said Dr. Klint.

Related source: Medical Daily

A new study published in Reuters Health suggests that doctors may soon have another area to target when it comes to treating chronic pain: your brain’s glial cells.

Researchers said their study indicated that patients with chronic pain often show signs of glial cell activation in areas of the brain that modulate pain.

“Glia appears to be involved in the pathophysiology of chronic pain, and therefore we should consider developing therapeutic approaches targeting glia,” said Dr. Marco L. Loggia, of Massachusetts General Hospital. “Glial activation is accompanied by many cellular responses, which include the production and release of substances (such as so-called ‘pro-inflammatory cytokines’) that can sensitize the pain pathways in the central nervous system. Thus, glial activation is not a mere reaction to a pain state but actively contributes to the establishment and/or maintenance of persistent pain.”

Glial Study

To test the theory that chronic pain sufferers experience activation of brain glia, Dr. Loggia and his team analyzed data from 19 patients with chronic low back pain and 25 non-chronic pain volunteers. After analyzing translocator protein (TPSO) levels associated with the activation of brain glia, researchers found:

Protein increases were significantly higher in patients with chronic low back pain than in the control group.

There were no brain regions in which the control group experienced a higher protein presence than the chronic back pain group.

“It’s important to stress that although TSPO upregulation is a marker of glial activation and therefore of a pro-inflammatory state, animal studies suggest that its role is actually to limit the magnitude of glial responses after their initiation, thereby promoting the return to pre-injury pain-free status and recovery from pain,” said Dr. Loggia. “This means that what we are imaging may be the process of glial cells trying to ‘calm down’ after being activated by the pain. Thus, subjects with low levels of pain-related TSPO upregulation on activated glia may be less able to adequately inhibit neuroinflammatory responses, and have a more exaggerated response that ultimately leads to more inflammation and pain.”

Dr. Loggia continued:

“No objective biomarkers exist to determine if somebody is in pain (i.e. you can’t just hook someone up to a machine to see if they’re experiencing chronic pain). Thus, this study – aside from suggesting glia as a therapeutic target for pain – is important as it may provide an important step toward the identification of objective biomarkers for pain conditions.”

He concluded by saying knowledge of human glial activation had been limited, prior to the study.

“In animal studies we know that glial modulators, which limit glial activation, can potently inhibit or reverse pain,” Dr. Loggia said. “However, evidence of glial involvement in human pain has been very limited until now. Observing glial activation in humans has important potential implications for the development of new therapies based on glial modulation. Seeing that glial activation really happens in patients will provide the rationale to justify a more aggressive exploration of this therapeutic route, and identify which patients are more likely to benefit from these types of therapies.”

Related source: Reuters, Scientific American