Chronic Pain Researchers Pursue New Path to Localized Relief | UT Dallas News Center

Joshua Rosenthal, MBL senior scientist, is lead principal investigator on this project to develop non-addictive pain therapies by selectively blocking sodium channels through site-directed RNA editing.

Researchers from the Center for Advanced Pain Studies (CAPS) at The University of Texas at Dallas have teamed up with colleagues at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Yale School of Medicine and Tel Aviv University to pursue a new approach to localized chronic pain relief.

Their project received a $6.8 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for the first three years of a potential five-year project. The grant is part of the NIH’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative, which was created in response to the opioid epidemic. It funds efforts to develop nonaddictive analgesics and improve treatment for misuse of opiates.

The research team is focusing on sodium channels, which are proteins in cell membranes that allow sodium ions into cells. That action creates electrical impulses in nerve and muscle tissue. Selectively blocking particular sodium channels to impede their signals can reduce neuron excitability and slow the signal rate down, potentially reducing pain at its molecular source. Read the full story.

Source: Chronic Pain Researchers Pursue New Path to Localized Relief | News Center