Scientists are hopeful that a discovery that helps people without pain feel it once again, will also make a break through for patients experiencing chronic painful conditions.
For the handful of people around the world who can not experience the sensation of pain or extreme hot and cold conditions, the drug naxolone, used for treating morphine and heroin overdoses, is helpful in restoring the Nav1.7 receptors that transmit pain.
According to New Science, during an experiment with lab mice,scientists found mice lacking proper levels of the body’s natural pain reliever, Nav1.7 were unable to feel pain and extreme hot and cold conditions because they lacked enough opioid peptides. Opioid peptides are painkillers that present themselves naturally in the body. For those who don’t experience pain at all, it is believed they have an overabundance of opioid peptides in their system.
Once they made this discovery, scientists set about busily developing compounds to combat extremely painful conditions by combining naxolone with opioid drugs.
John Wood of the University College London calls the two drug combination a “fantastic drug target,” and believes the promise of hope for pain relief is on the horizon, He has taken out a patent on the drug combo treatment. Howevver, Kenji Okuse at Imperial College London cautions that a further look needs to be taken before the public is formally introduced to the drug.
According to Okuse, “opioids and Nav1.7 blockers could provide much stronger analgesics, but they will not necessarily be better for patients. . . If we take the combination therapy route, people would have to take opioids throughout the lifetime, which is not a welcome thing,”Okuse said.