Researchers have taken a key step forward to a new approach for treating neuropathic pain, according to a new study.
Among the most difficult types of pain to alleviate is neuropathic pain, pain that is usually caused by damage to nerves in various body tissues, including skin, muscle, and joints. It can cause patients to suffer feelings like electric shocks, tingling, burning, or stabbing.
Diabetes, multiple sclerosis, chemotherapy drugs, injuries, and amputations have all been associated with neuropathic pain, which is often chronic, sometimes unrelenting, and affects millions of people worldwide.
Many of the available pain medications are only moderately effective at treating this type of pain and often come with serious side effects, as well as risk of addiction.
As reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers have identified a molecule that reduces hypersensitivity in trials in mice by binding to a protein they have shown is involved in neuropathic pain.
“We found it to be an effective painkiller, and the effects were rather long-lived,” says Stephen Martin, professor of chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin and co-corresponding author of the paper. “When we tested it on different models, diabetic neuropathy and chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, for example, we found this compound has an incredible beneficial effect.”
The new compound, dubbed FEM-1689, does not engage opioid receptors in the body, making it a possible alternative to existing pain medications linked to addiction.
In addition to reducing sensitivity, the compound can help regulate the integrated stress response (ISR), a network of cellular signaling that helps the body respond to injuries and diseases. When well regulated, the ISR restores balance and promotes healing. When it goes awry, the ISR can contribute to diseases such as cancer, diabetes and metabolic disorders.
“It’s our goal to make this compound into a drug that can be used to treat chronic pain without the dangers of opioids,” Martin says. “Neuropathic pain is often a debilitating condition that can affect people their entire lives, and we need a treatment that is well tolerated and effective.”
Additional coauthors are from UT Austin, the University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
The National Institutes of Health, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Robert A. Welch Foundation funded the work.
The University of Texas at Austin is committed to transparency and disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest. University investigators involved in this research have submitted required financial disclosure forms with the University. As co-founders of NuvoNuro Inc., Stephen Martin and James Sahn also are co-inventors on patents and pending patent applications related to work described in this article.
Source: UT Austin
