Tag Archives: neuropathic pain

Scientists Discover Powerful Potential Pain Reliever

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AUSTIN, Texas — A team of scientists led by chemists Stephen Martin and James Sahn at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered what they say is a powerful pain reliever that acts on a previously unknown pain pathway. The synthetic compound, known as UKH-1114, is as effective at relieving neuropathic pain in injured mice as a drug widely used for pain relief called gabapentin, but it works at a much lower dose, with longer duration of action. (more…)

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Within tarantula venom, new hope for safe and novel painkillers found

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Screening more than 100 spider toxins, Yale researchers identified a protein from the venom of the Peruvian green velvet tarantula that blunts activity in pain-transmitting neurons. The findings, reported in the March 3 issue of the journal Current Biology, show the new screening method used by the scientists has the potential to search millions of different spider toxins for safe pain-killing drugs and therapies.

The researchers note that they tested the spider toxins on only one of a dozen suspected human pain channels. (more…)

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Lab Studies Show Promise for New Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

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Successfully treating and reversing the effects of multiple sclerosis, or MS, may one day be possible using a drug originally developed to treat chronic pain, according to Distinguished Professor Linda Watkins of the University of Colorado at Boulder. 

Watkins and her colleagues in CU-Boulder’s department of psychology and neuroscience discovered that a single injection of a compound called ATL313 — an anti-inflammatory drug being developed to treat chronic pain — stopped the progression of MS-caused paralysis in rats for weeks at a time.  (more…)

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