Chronic pain tagged posts

Old Drugs Hint at New Ways to Beat Chronic Pain

Visualizing pain in mouse sensory neurons. Mouse sensory neurons are shown in magenta. BH4, the molecule driving chronic pain, is shown in green. Hence, the neurons “in pain” are seen in green/white. ©Cronin/IMBA

A newly identified link between chronic pain and lung cancer in mice offers hope for pain management. A new study points to possible new treatments for chronic pain with a surprising link to lung cancer. Findings of the research, conducted in laboratory mouse models, open up multiple therapeutic opportunities that could allow the world to improve chronic pain management and eclipse the opioid epidemic.

Pain is an important alarm system that alerts us to tissue damage and prompts us to withdraw from harmful situations...

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Western High-Fat Diet can cause Chronic Pain, according to new study

A typical Western high-fat diet can increase the risk of painful disorders common in people with conditions such as diabetes or obesity, according to a groundbreaking paper authored by a team led by The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, also referred to as UT Health San Antonio.

Moreover, changes in diet may significantly reduce or even reverse pain from conditions causing either inflammatory pain — such as arthritis, trauma or surgery — or neuropathic pain, such as diabetes. The novel finding could help treat chronic-pain patients by simply altering diet or developing drugs that block release of certain fatty acids in the body.

The paper, more than five years in the making, was published in the June edition of the journal Nature Metabolism by a collabora...

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New study further Advances the Treatment of Chronic Pain

New study further advances the treatment of chronic pain
Pinwheel flower. Credit: LIH

Scientists have demonstrated that conolidine, a natural painkiller derived from the pinwheel flower and traditionally used in Chinese medicine, interacts with the newly identified opioid receptor ACKR3/ CXCR7 that regulates opioid peptides naturally produced in the brain. The researchers also developed a synthetic analogue of conolidine, RTI-5152-12, which displays an even greater activity on the receptor.

These findings, which were published on June 3rd in the international journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy (Nature publishing group), further advance the understanding of pain regulation and open alternative therapeutic avenues for the treatment of chronic pain.

Opioid peptides are small proteins that mediate pain relief and emotions, in...

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New hope for Treating Chronic Pain Without Opioids

According to some estimates, chronic pain affects up to 40% of Americans, and treating it frustrates both clinicians and patients — a frustration that’s often compounded by a hesitation to prescribe opioids for pain.

A new study from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry confirms that a low dose of a drug called naltrexone is a good option for patients with orofacial and chronic pain, without the risk of addiction, said first author Elizabeth Hatfield, a clinical lecturer in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Hospital Dentistry.

Naltrexone is a semisynthetic opioid first developed in 1963 as an oral alternative to naloxone, the nasal spray used to reverse opioid drug overdoses. When prescribed at doses of 50 to 100 milligrams, naltrexone
blocks the effe...

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