MIT Study May Lead To Powerful New Painkillers

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MIT Study May Lead To Powerful New Painkillers

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — New information on a cellular messenger may lead to

powerful new painkilling drugs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

researchers recently reported online in the journal Psychopharmacology.

Blocking a common signaling messenger between cells might shut down the

chronic pain and inflammation that plagues millions, says author A.

Teather, postdoctoral associate in the MIT Department of Brain and

Cognitive Sciences.

More than 100 million North Americans suffer from chronic pain, and

around half of these people are partially or totally disabled by it.

Inflammation may also be involved in the pathology of diseases such as

Alzheimer’s.

Teather studies platelet-activating factor (PAF), identified as a blood-

clotting agent in the 1970s. It was later found to cause the buildup of

prostaglandins, derivatives of fatty acids found in most body tissues.

Excess prostaglandins are associated with chronic pain and inflammation.

AN INSIDE STORY

PAF affects two kinds of receptors. Teather believes that receptors

within cells regulate prostaglandin production. Drugs such as ibuprofen

and aspirin relieve pain by blocking the formation of prostaglandins.

Teather and co-authors J. Wurtman, C. H. Green Distinguished

Professor in Brain and Cognitive Sciences and director of MIT’s Clinical

Research Center; and Jane E. Magnusson of the Department of Clinical

Neurosciences at the University of Calgary, found that drugs that

interfere with PAF’s action block prostaglandin production and diminish

pain and inflammation.

Although these drugs are not now used to treat inflammation or pain, one

is in the herbal supplement gingko biloba. MIT has filed for patents on

blocking PAF as a means for mediating inflammatory responses and

alleviating pain.

In the study, rats that were given drugs known to block PAF action

exhibited significantly less pain response than did rats that did not get

the drugs.

Although the researchers do not yet have any data on PAF in humans, they

believe that blocking PAF might be effective in the treatment of certain

forms of acute and chronic pain.

CHECKING IMMUNE RESPONSE

" PAF controls many of the usual suspects in the inflammatory reaction, "

Teather said. Out-of-control inflammation is an indication of an immune

response gone awry. At a molecular level, an overactive immune system

leads to neurotoxicity, which may be a culprit in some neurological

diseases.

A future painkiller that regulates PAF also could be useful in

conjunction with morphine, which quickly loses its effectiveness in

patients with chronic pain.

This study was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes

of Mental Health and the Center for Brain Sciences and Metabolism

Charitable Trust.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/04/020402073407.htm