If only humans could benefit from new research like mice do.
Another groundbreaking finding while studying mice – this one out of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and published in the journal Nature Neuroscience – “has completely eliminated chronic pain behavior.”
The new findings represent a significant breakthrough in understanding that a region of the brain, which regulates feelings of happiness, sadness and addiction, is remodeled by chronic pain. More importantly, the researchers have created a two-drug combination that restores this region, resulting in dramatically reduced pain symptoms.
The two-drug combination includes a Parkinson’s drug, L-dopa, and a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. When combined, the drugs target the brain’s circuits in the nucleus accumbens, and eliminate chronic pain behavior. The study authors noted “the key is administering the drugs together and shortly after injury,” which leaves open the question of whether such treatments could benefit people suffering in pain for long periods of time.
“It was surprising to us that chronic pain actually rewires the part of the brain controlling whether you feel happy or sad,” said corresponding author D. James Surmeier, chair of physiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in a press release. “By understanding what was causing these changes, we were able to design a corrective therapy that worked remarkably well in the models. The question now is whether it will work in humans.”
“The study shows you can think of chronic pain as the brain getting addicted to pain,” said A. Vania Apkarian, professor of physiology at Feinberg, and co-author of the study. “The brain circuit that has to do with addiction has gotten involved in the pain process itself.”
“It is remarkable that by changing the activity of a single cell type in an emotional area of the brain, we can prevent the pain behavior,” said Marco Martina, associate professor of physiology at Feinberg and also a co-author of the study.
Well, the mice in Evanston, Illinois, are surely feeling better, just as the mice in London are enjoying their “recipe for painlessness.” But will humans ever get a crack at experiencing this new drug combination?
The good news is, yes. The new research has scientists excited enough to begin pursuing a clinical trial in humans. Information regarding when such a clinical trial will begin is currently unavailable.