When the pain is stored inside the cells

2017/06/05 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Medikuntza
• Farmakologia
• Osasuna

To treat chronic and acute pain it may be important to reach the inside of neurons. In fact, an international team of researchers has seen in some experiments carried out with rats that some receptors of the superficial pain of neurons migrate inside the cell. And conventional drugs are not able to reach that point.

It was previously known that receptors called NK1R are related to chronic pain and acute pain. When NK1R receptors are activated they cause inflammation and pain. However, so far, no good results have been obtained with the drugs intended for these receptors. Now, the work published in the journal Science Translational Medicine shows that when these receptors are activated they undergo intracellular endosomes, where pain and inflammation persist for a long time.

In addition, the compounds that block these receptors have been added a lipid so that they can cross the cell membrane and have seen that the pain is eliminated. In this way, researchers have suggested that many existing drugs may be able to improve their effectiveness by transforming themselves in this way.