According to the American Academy of Pain Medicine, chronic pain can be debilitating—incurring huge health care costs, rendering daily activities impossible, making work impossible, and disrupting sleep. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 100 million people live with chronic pain—more than heart disease, diabetes, and cancer combined.
The new class of painkillers targets two receptors known as TRPV4 and TRPA1, which according to the Duke researchers, “function in sensory nerve cells to directly sense painful stimuli.” The first is linked to joint pain, the second is described as a “promising target in pain and itch research.”
Initially seeking a more potent version of an earlier TRPV4 blocker, the researchers discovered that the new version also blocked TRPA1, making it a powerful dual-action pain reliever. One of the drugs, referred to as “16-8” proved successful at treating pain in mice including “abdominal aches” and “pancreas inflammation.”
Dr. Wolfgang Liedtke, a neurology professor and leader of the study, said the drug could be useful in treating many conditions. “As a physician, I soon realized the enormous potential that these compounds might have, given how beneficial dual-target molecules can be in clinical medicine,” he said.
A pain specialist, Liedtke suggested that the drug could be used to treat headaches, jaw pain, osteoporosis, and nerve cell injuries. “We are very pleased with what is a first chapter in a highly promising story,” Liedtke said. “We hope to be able to develop these compounds for clinical use in humans or animals.”