Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have chronic abdominal pain as a result of visceral hypersensitivity. Voltage-gated sodium channels control cellular excitability and are involved in the pathophysiology of several functional gastrointestinal disorders. Researchers from Nocion Therapeutics Inc. and the University of Oklahoma recently reported on the preclinical testing of NTX-1175, a sodium-channel blocker, in rat models of acute colonic hypersensitivity to distension.
Researchers have used cell culture experiments to understand how gene expression was affected in a patient with a rare pain insensitivity syndrome, and have identified a network of hundreds of genes whose expression was changed compared to sex-matched controls. Published online in the journal Brain on May 23, 2023, the research is one step toward translating a rare mutation into medications that could provide benefits for common ailments.
Long-term brain recordings from four patients with chronic pain have led investigators at the University of California at San Francisco to identify brain signals that could serve as biomarkers for each individual patients’ pain. The study, which was published online in Nature Neuroscience on May 22, 2023, demonstrated that “chronic pain can successfully be tracked, can successfully be predicted, in the real world while patients are ... going about their lives,” lead author Prasad Shirvalkar told reporters at a press conference announcing the findings. Shirvalkar is a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco.
Long-term brain recordings from four patients with chronic pain have led investigators at the University of California at San Francisco to identify brain signals that could serve as biomarkers for each individual patients’ pain.
Researchers at Mossakowski Medical Research Centre at the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS) and The University of Warsaw have divulged peptides reported to be useful for the treatment of pain.
Sensitized nociceptors, such as during inflammation, respond to non-noxious stimuli. The precise molecular mechanisms for sensitization to mechanical stimuli are not well defined. Recent findings have suggested piezo-type mechanosensitive ion channel component 2 (Piezo2) to be part of these mechanisms.
Grünenthal Gmbh and King’s College London have entered into a 24-month collaboration to develop microfluidic culture (MFC) models based on human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for pain research.
Shijiazhuang Discovery Medicine Technology Co. Ltd. has divulged pranoprofen derivatives reported to be useful for the treatment of pain and eye disorders.