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Ed Note:
The following is a press release from University of Virginia Health
System.
September 21, 2005 -- We all know that if you put your hand over an open
flame it's very painful. What you may not know is that, for some people,
just lying under a blanket is painful as well. They have neuropathic
pain--annoying, chronic pain that comes from a diseased nerve cell rather
than a specific stimulus. Feeling phantom pain in a missing limb is another,
more famous, example.
Experts say up to two percent of the U.S. population suffers from
neuropathic pain. But this pain generally responds poorly to analgesics and
other standard treatment and get worse over time, causing permanent
disability in some people. Now there may be new hope for these pain
sufferers.
Scientists at the University of Virginia Health System have identified a new
type of pain-sensing neuron in rats, which are unusually dense in a subtype
of calcium channels called T-type channels. It is possible that these
"T-rich cells" could be targets for future therapies to treat neuropathic
pain as well as acute onset pain, which can happen after invasive surgery or
inflammation.
A UVa anesthesiologist, Dr. Slobodan Todorovic, and his colleagues
identified these novel cells and believe that the T-type calcium channels in
them may serve as a volume control for pain impulses. "We hope that this new
type of neuron will be amenable to new therapies. The next step will be to
find a drug to block the action of these calcium channels," Todorovic said.
It was once thought that calcium channels were only important for brain
function. But, Todorovic and his team show that the T-type channels are
important to the functioning of peripheral nerves, especially when the
nerves are injured.
A PhD student in UVa's neuroscience graduate program, Mike Nelson,
discovered these T-rich nerve cells in Todorovic' lab. "It's very exciting
to make an initial observation like this," Nelson said. "It's one reason we
go to grad school in the first place." There are no drugs now that
effectively treat neuropathic pain, Nelson added. "Hopefully, observations
like this will lead to new and more efficacious drugs in the future. Our
findings are another piece of evidence that these calcium channels are
excellent targets for new analgesic development."
---- Their findings
are published in the Sept. 21st issue of The Journal of Neuroscience found
online at http://www.jneurosci.org/.
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