Researchers reveal a potential new way to treat chronic pain using anti-cancer drugs rather than opioid-based pain medication. Researchers identified the existence of a molecule in the nervous system that enhances sensitivity to pain. This molecule had previously been thought to play a role in cancer growth but had never been reported in the nervous system. By targeting this molecule it may now be possible to use already existing anti-cancer drugs to block pain.
A newly published study by University of Calgary researchers reveals a potential new way to treat chronic pain using anti-cancer drugs rather than opioid-based pain medication. By analysing a large number of genes important in the transmission of pain information to the brain, principal investigator Dr. Christophe Altier, PhD, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Inflammatory Pain, and his team have identified the existence of a molecule in the nervous system that enhances sensitivity to pain. This molecule had previously been thought to play a role in cancer growth but had never been reported in the nervous system. It may now be possible to use already existing anti-cancer drugs to block pain. "The most exciting part of this discovery is that we don't need to develop a new drug," says Dr. Christophe…