Even before I heard John Lennon encourage everyone to smoke pot as my big sister spun that long-lost Beatles LP backwards, researchers have been trying to find ways to protect the world from becoming addicted, halting the further decline of western civilization.
Well, that slice of western civilization dealing with the psychological and physical torture of chronic pain may have found their day in the sun.
It was announced last week that researchers at Columbia University may have found a new method of treating pain that has contributed to depression, substance abuse and suicide. The discovery is an analgesic for the time being known as N60, whose side effects include neither tolerance nor addiction.
Pain can be thought of as a perception, conceived via signals sent from nerves in the peripheral nervous system to the brain. There are several pathways by which the brain perceives the pain. The Columbia researchers discovered one of those pathways that neurons use to alert the brain to a peripheral insult or injury. If not controlled in some fashion, this pathway alters the electrical properties of the neuron, resulting in chronic pain. A protein in the pathway, PKG, acts like a switch; as long as this switch is in the "on" position, the pathway is activated and the brain receives continuous pain signals-even after the injury has long since healed: hence, chronic pain.
Because PKG is specific for biochemical signaling involved with chronic pain, turning off PKG will not prevent a patient from feeling acute pain; the importance of this was obvious to the researchers as they focused on PKG as a target in the battle against chronic pain. In addition, as PKG works in the peripheral nervous system, and not the brain, a drug whose mechanism of action involves the blocking of PKG would not have to cross the blood-brain barrier; thus, the risk of sedation and addiction are reduced, side effects associated with the current drugs used in chronic pain, opioids (addiction mostly) and anti-depressants (sedation).
And so the Columbia research team developed N60, a selective blocker of PKG, which prevents PKG from sending signals to the brain. In the studies performed thus far, N60 is non-addictive and non-sedating, with one dose significantly reducing pain for at least 24 hours. It is hoped N60 may be of particular use to military personnel who suffer chronic pain due to combat-related physical and emotional injuries.
It will be interesting to watch the progress of N60, as it moves from pre-clinical trials to clinical trials. While it is too early to know whether it will ever make it to the medicine cabinets of those with chronic pain, at least researchers are identifying new targets in the treatment of chronic pain.
Meanwhile, it is not unreasonable to ask one last question: Are the youth of today playing their digital downloads backwards?
