Experts at the University of Cambridge said that medicines could be designed to block the protein produced by the gene, could be a type of pain called neuropathic, which is linked to nerve damage and tends to be difficult to control with the currently available drugs.
“Neuropathic pain sufferers tend to have little or no truce due to the lack of effective medication,” said Peter McNaughton, the Department of Pharmacology of Cambridge, who directed the study.
“Our research paves the way for the development of new drugs to treat chronic pain by blocking the HCN2,” added the author. The treatment of pain is an enormous health burden worldwide. It is estimated that it costs more than 281.000 million dollars annually and the United States, some 150 billion dollars a year to Europe. Studies show that about 22 percent of people with chronic pain, however, they become depressed and 25 percent ends up losing work. A survey of the 2002 / 2003 by a group called Pain in Europe (pain in Europe) estimated that one in five Europeans suffer pain chronic.
Scientists knew the HCN2 gene, which is located in the pain-sensitive nerve endings, for years, but they had failed to fully understand their role in the regulation of pain. Given that a related gene, called HCN4 plays a key role in the control of the electrical activity of the heart, the McNaughton team suspected that the HCN2 might have a function similar to and regular electrical activity in sensitive nerves pain.
For the study, published in the journal Science, researchers removed electric ad in the sensitive nerves to the laboratory the HCN2 of sensitive nerve pain and then used electrical stimuli on these nerves to discover how changed the nerve endings in the absence of the gene
The scientists then studied genetically modified mice that it had “erased” HCN2 gene. Through the measurement of the speed that the mice did recover from different types of nerve stimuli, experts were able to demonstrate that eliminate the HCN2 seemed to have no effect on acute pain normal – as caused by an accidental cut or bite the mouth – a factor pointed out is important because this type of pain acts as a useful for the body. warning signal
“What is exciting to work on the gene HCN2 is to remove it – or block pharmacologically – delete neuropathic pain without affecting normal acute pain,” he said
McNaughton said in a statement on the study. “This finding could be very valuable clinically because the normal sensation of pain is essential to avoid accidental damage,” he added.
Neuropathic pain, which is distinguished from the inflammatory pain, is seen in patients with diabetes – which affects some 280 million people throughout the world- and as a very painful Herpes Zoster and effect of chemotherapy in cancer patients.
It is also a common factor in the back pain and other chronic diseases painful.
