Quantcast
ZME Science
  • CoronavirusNEW
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
Home Health & Medicine

Powerful new painkiller with no side effects could be just one year away

Mihai Andrei by Mihai Andrei
January 30, 2011
in Health & Medicine, Mind & Brain, Studies
Get more science news like this...

Join the ZME newsletter for amazing science news, features, and exclusive scoops. More than 40,000 subscribers can't be wrong.

   

Unfortunately, pretty much every human being with access to medical care has taken some sort of painkillers at some point – unfortunately because of the reason; but painkillers don’t make the pain signal go away. What happens is the signal still goes to the brain, but the opiates such as morphine alter the way the brain “understands” it, and as a side effect, also alter the patient’s judgement, and also can lead to addiction. However, this new type of painkiller that is being developed by researchers from the Stony Brook University works in a totally different way, and so far, it showed absolutely no side effects or addictive qualities.

This offers a major paradigm shift in the control of pain,” declares Dr. Simon Halegoua, Professor of Neurobiology & Behavior at Stony Brook

During the 1990s, the professor teamed up with Dr. Gail Mandel and Dr. Paul Brehm to identify a novel sodium ion channel involved in the transmission of pain. Basically, they were trying to find the “wire” that transmits the pain signal to the brain and find a way to “cut” it.

“When a patient is given an opiate like morphine, pain signals are still transmitted from sensory nerves to the central nervous system. Morphine action throughout the brain reduces and alters pain perception, but it also impairs judgement and results in drug dependence,” explains Halegoua, also director of the Center for Nervous System Disorders at Stony Brook University. “With drugs targeting the PN1/Nav1.7 sodium ion channel, the pain signals would not be transmitted, even by the sensory nerves. And since the central nervous system is taken out of the equation, there would be no side effects and no addictive qualities.”

Of course the benefits for such a painkiller would be absolutely huge, bringing the elimination of pain to people suffering from a number of diseases, from cancer or arthritis, to migraines or burns. It is still yet in clinical trials, but the odds are in just a year or two, it will hit the market – it will be interesting to see what pharmaceutical companies will do with other painkillers when this one comes out.
Picture source

Tags: Health & Medicinemorphinepainkillerpharmaceuticalpowerfulsedative
Mihai Andrei

Mihai Andrei

Andrei's background is in geophysics, and he's been fascinated by it ever since he was a child. Feeling that there is a gap between scientists and the general audience, he started ZME Science -- and the results are what you see today.

Follow ZME on social media

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
  • More

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.