A
new study has opened up the possibility that existing drugs for high blood
pressure could also be used to treat chronic pain.
A new study has opened up the
possibility that existing drugs for high blood pressure could also be used to
treat chronic pain.
The international team,
comprising of researchers from King’s College London, Pfizer, and BGI-Shenzhen
in China, explored the genetic variation in a population relating to pain
sensitivity.
Pain that lasts for six months or
longer is generally called chronic pain. Chronic pain is a significant personal
and socio-economic burden, with nearly one in five people experiencing it at
some point in their lives.
Current pain treatments have
either limited efficacy or significant side effects, and here the researchers
studied the genetic mechanisms of pain in the hope of developing new approaches
to pain relief.
In the study, published online in
the journal PLoS Genetics, the researchers determined the pain
thresholds of 2,500 volunteers by placing a heated probe on their arm. The
volunteers were asked to press a button when the heat became uncomfortable for
them.
Exome sequencing was then carried
out on DNA samples from 200 of the most pain sensitive and 200 of the least
pain sensitive people. Comparison between the two groups showed significantly
different patterns in the rare variants of 138 genes.
Additionally, in the most pain
sensitive group, there was a significant enrichment of genes in the angiotensin
pathway, such as angiotensin II, a peptide hormone involved in the control of
blood pressure.
The results suggest that the
angiotensin pathway plays an important role in pain regulation in humans and
indicates that genetic variation in the pathway may influence sensitivity to
pain. Existing drugs that regulate blood pressure may offer new and safe
methods to control pain, the researchers say.
“This finding is exciting because
it opens up the possibility that existing drugs for high blood pressure could
also be used to treat pain. Further studies are needed to test this in humans,
but early studies in this area are promising,” said Dr. Frances Williams,
Senior Lecturer at King’s College London, who was the lead author on the study.
The article can be found
at: Williams FMK et al. (2012) Genes Contributing to Pain
Sensitivity in the Normal Population: An Exome Sequencing Study.
Source: BGI
No comments:
Post a Comment