Scientists uncover Achilles heel of chronic inflammatory pain

Researchers have made a discovery that could lead to a brand new class of drugs to treat chronic pain caused by inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and back pain without numbing the whole body. The team, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and working at UCL (University College London), have shown for the first time that genes involved in chronic pain are regulated by molecules inside cells called small RNAs. This mechanism is so different from what has already been discovered about the biology underpinning pain that it could be the Achilles heel of chronic inflammatory pain, which is notoriously difficult to treat. The research appears in The Journal of Neuroscience. Lead researcher Professor John Wood from UCL said 'When a person experiences chronic pain as a result of some sort of inflammation ' as in arthritis - their pain threshold goes down very dramatically. What they can normally do without pain, such as walking or putting on clothes, becomes very painful. 'Chronic inflammatory pain can be treated with pain-killing drugs ' analgesics - but these usually have an impact on the whole body and may also dull our experience of acute pain, which is actually very important as it protects us from injury.