A recent study led by researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine says it is now possible to predict within three days of whiplash injury, which patients will develop chronic pain, based on cross “talk” between regions of the brain and a person’s anxiety level after the injury. The…

Research from a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study that collected pain-related data from within the brains of a small cohort of patients, has identified a specific area of the brain and related biomarkers associated with chronic pain. According to the researchers—who were examining chronic pain disorders caused by stroke…

A collaborative Canadian study has discovered sex-specific mechanisms of chronic pain processing in neurons of the spinal cord that are conserved across species from rodents to humans, a finding which could lead to the development of more personalized therapies for this indication in the future. Only recently have pain scientists…

Women with chronic pelvic pain who also carry a genetic variant in the neuregulin 3 gene (NRG3) are more likely to respond to treatment with gabapentin, shows research led by the University of Edinburgh. Up to 26% of women and those assigned female at birth have chronic pelvic pain. Although…

An international team of scientists has identified three novel genetic variants associated with chronic back pain. Their study (“Genome-wide meta-analysis of 158,000 individuals of European ancestry identifies three loci associated with chronic back pain”), published in PLOS Genetics, links the risk for back pain with variants in genes controlling skeletal development,…

Sex differences in nociceptors, the specialized nerve cells that produce pain, are substantive enough that they could impact treatment response, according to work by the University of Arizona Health Sciences researchers. A patient’s sex is currently not usually a consideration for the choice of pain therapy. But this team’s finding…

As the crushing burden of opioid addiction grows, companies such as Latigo Biotherapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals are working to develop new, safer, and more effective non-opioid painkillers. It’s a huge unmet need and an opportunity. Non-addictive pain drugs represent a growing market that is expected to be worth over $30B…

In work that could lead to a non-addictive alternative to opioids, scientists used chemogenetics to quiet hyperactive neurons that cause chronic pain in both mouse and cultured human neurons. Using a viral vector, they delivered PSAM4-GlyR—a fully humanized protein that consists of a chloride channel that can be activated by varenicline,…

A multi-center study conducted in Spain, reported in Nature Metabolism, has shown that a chronic angina drug improves melanoma treatment efficacy in mouse models of the disease—the most deadly of skin cancers. The research homed in on BRAF, a key genetic driver of the development of melanoma to discover why…

Researchers in Brazil looking for novel painkillers have discovered instead a potential pain insensitivity mutation that codes for a protein known to mitigate the sensory response to heat and the burning sensation caused by chili peppers. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigations, discovered that an avian variants…

Confo Therapeutics, which specializes in targeting G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), has announced a worldwide licensing agreement with Eli Lilly and Company for Confo’s non-opiod, pain candidate, CFTX-1554 and back-up compounds. “We are pleased that Lilly, an expert in chronic pain with a wealth of experience in bringing novel therapies to…

Research from the University of Copenhagen shows a link between use of common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and hospitalization for heart failure in patients with type 2 diabetes. In a presentation at the 2022 European Society of Cardiology conference in Barcelona, the Danish team revealed that patients who took ibuprofen…

Chronic diseases cover a wide range of medical conditions from asthma and diabetes to gastrointestinal and heart problems. As the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes: “Chronic diseases are defined broadly as conditions that last 1 year or more and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities…

As the world of molecular testing for cancer has evolved, so have the methods for analyzing solid tumors to identify the relevant biomarkers that are hallmarks of the disease. Collectively, these can suggest any number of new targeted therapies that have been developed over the past 15 years. But while…

Australian cell therapy biotech Mesoblast has released results this week showing its allogenic cell therapy, designed to target pain in those with degenerative disc disease, provides pain relief for at least three years. The last year has been mixed for the company, which saw shares crash by 21% in December…