A Promising Target for New Pain Treatments | NIH News

The NIH's (or NIH HEAL) seeks to stem the national opioid public health crisis by supporting the development of innovative medications and non-addictive interventions for opioid addiction and chronic pain. MBL Senior Scientist Joshua Rosenthal received a NIH-HEAL grant in 2021 to further his research on using RNA editing to reduce pain signals issuing from a protein (Nav1.7)  that connects pain-sensing cells to the brain and spinal cord. Below is an update from the National Institutes of Health on several NIH-HEAL efforts, including Rosenthal's.

Every year, health care providers prescribe millions of doses of pain medications. Yet these medications don’t work for everyone; may not fully control the individual’s pain; and come with their own health risks, such as addiction. 

New safe, effective, and non-addictive pain medications are urgently needed for the 50 million Americans living with chronic pain, half of whom have severe pain that significantly impacts their daily living. Over the past 5 years, no innovative pain medications with new targets have been approved other than for migraine, but researchers are hopeful this will change. 

Scientists funded by the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term^® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative^®, are on the quest for new, non-addictive pain medications. One target that is a protein called Nav1.7, which is thought to be crucial for sending pain signals from pain-sensing cells to the spinal cord and brain. ...

Researchers hope that by turning off or toning down Nav1.7 activity, they can silence pain-sensing cells and thus relieve pain. Various teams are pursuing different approaches to achieve that goal.

Source: Closing in on Nav1.7: A Promising Target for New Pain Treatments | NIH News