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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Researchers Think They Have Something with Discovery
of Pain Switch
 They say they have discovered a protein in nerve
cells that acts as switch
July 21, 2006 – If there was a switch to turn off
and on the pain endured by millions of aging senior citizens, you can be
absolutely sure it would stay on "off." Researchers claim to have
discovered a switch for chronic pain – a protein in nerve cells.
(Read more about
chronic pain below news report.)
Chronic pain affects approximately 48 million
people in the U.S. and current medications, many conclude, are either
largely ineffective or have serious side effects. But researchers from
Columbia University Medical Center have applied for a patent to develop
a new class of drugs that will block chronic pain by turning this switch
off. The discovery is published on the website of the journal
Neuroscience, and will appear in the publication's August issue.
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Most prior attempts at alleviating chronic pain
have focused on the "second order" neurons in the spinal cord that relay
pain messages to the brain. It's difficult to inhibit the activity of
these neurons with drugs, though, because the drugs need to overcome the
blood-brain barrier. Instead, the CUMC researchers have focused on the
more accessible "first order" neurons in the periphery of our body that
send messages to the spinal cord.
Pain becomes chronic when the activity of first and
second order neurons persists after damaged neuron heals or the tissue
inflammation subsides. It's been known for years that for chronic pain
to persist, a master switch must be turned on inside the peripheral
neurons, though until now the identity of this switch remained a
mystery. Richard Ambron, Ph.D., professor of cell biology, and Ying-Ju
Sung, Ph.D., assistant professor, both in the department of Anatomy and
Cell Biology, have now discovered that the switch is an enzyme called
protein kinase G (PKG).
"We're very optimistic that this discovery and our
continued research will ultimately lead to a novel approach to pain
relief for the millions suffering from chronic pain," said Dr. Ambron.
The researchers found that upon injury or
inflammation, the PKG is turned on and activated. Once activated, these
molecules set off other processes that generate the pain messages. As
long as the PKG remains on, the pain persists. Conversely, turning the
PKG off relieves the pain, making PKG an excellent target for therapy.
Dr. Ambron and Dr. Sung have applied for a patent
for the pathway that turns on the PKG, as well as several molecules that
inhibit it.
Based on the 2004 Americans Living with Pain
Survey, 72 percent of people with chronic pain have lived with it for
more than three years, including a third who have lived with pain for
more than a decade. Yet nearly half of people with pain do not consult a
physician for several months or longer, despite the impact the pain has
on their lives.
The worldwide painkiller market was worth $50
billion in 2005 and is expected to increase to $75 billion by 2010 and
$105 billion by 2015. But none of the existing drugs on the market are
adequate to deal with chronic pain. Cox-2 inhibitors carry severe risk
of side effects, opioids are highly addictive, Tylenol is ineffective
for chronic pain, and other pain drugs cause significant drowsiness.
Columbia University Medical Center provides
international leadership in pre-clinical and clinical research, in
medical and health sciences education, and in patient care. The medical
center trains future leaders in health care and includes the dedicated
work of many physicians, scientists, nurses, dentists, and public health
professionals at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, the College of
Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the Mailman School of Public
Health, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia
University Medical Center researchers are leading the discovery of novel
therapies and advances to address a wide range of health conditions.
http://www.cumc.columbia.edu
More About Chronic Pain
What is Chronic Pain?
While acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous
system to alert you to possible injury and the need to take care
of yourself, chronic pain is different. Chronic pain persists.
Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks,
months, even years. There may have been an initial mishap --
sprained back, serious infection, or there may be an ongoing
cause of pain -- arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some
people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or
evidence of body damage.
Many chronic pain conditions affect older
adults.
Common chronic pain complaints include
headache, low back pain, cancer pain, arthritis pain, neurogenic
pain (pain resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves or to
the central nervous system itself), psychogenic pain (pain not
due to past disease or injury or any visible sign of damage
inside or outside the nervous system).
Is there any treatment?
Medications, acupuncture, local electrical stimulation, and
brain stimulation, as well as surgery, are some treatments for
chronic pain. Some physicians use placebos, which in some cases
has resulted in a lessening or elimination of pain.
Psychotherapy, relaxation and medication therapies, biofeedback,
and behavior modification may also be employed to treat chronic
pain.
What is the prognosis?
Many people with chronic pain can be helped if they understand
all the causes of pain and the many and varied steps that can be
taken to undo what chronic pain has done. Scientists believe
that advances in neuroscience will lead to more and better
treatments for chronic pain in the years to come.
What research is being done?
Clinical investigators have tested chronic pain patients and
found that they often have lower-than-normal levels of
endorphins in their spinal fluid. Investigations of acupuncture
include wiring the needles to stimulate nerve endings
electrically (electroacupuncture), which some researchers
believe activates endorphin systems. Other experiments with
acupuncture have shown that there are higher levels of
endorphins in cerebrospinal fluid following acupuncture.
Investigators are studying the effect of stress on the
experience of chronic pain. Chemists are synthesizing new
analgesics and discovering painkilling virtues in drugs not
normally prescribed for pain.
National Institute of Neurological
Disorders & Stroke –
click for more
More Links for Senior
Citizens
●
Aging with Ease: A Positive Approach to Pain Management
(Alliance for Aging Research) - Links to PDF
●
Assessing Pain in Loved Ones with Dementia (AGS Foundation
for Health in Aging) - Links to PDF
●
Eldercare at Home: Pain (AGS Foundation for Health in Aging)
●
Persistent Pain (AGS Foundation for Health in Aging)
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