TORONTO — Researchers at the University of Calgary have identified a new pain receptor involved in the acute pain suffered by people with arthritis and Crohn’s disease.
Finding the receptor should help scientists discover how to block the pathway, which could improve the quality of life of people with these painful conditions.
“This finding will help us develop new drugs to treat people coping with painful health conditions — arthritis, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome and diabetes,” said lead author John Wallace, a professor of pharmacology and therapeutics at the university.
The findings were published in a recent issue of the journal Nature Medicine.
A pain receptor is essentially a doorway into the nerves that allow pain signals to pass up the spinal cord to the brain.
The receptor that has been identified is one of a newly identified class called protease activated receptors, or PARs for short. The researchers discovered PAR-2, which appears to be particularly important in the pain associated with inflammatory diseases.
PAR-2 receptors are found in a number of tissues, including the skin, joints, gut and specially the pancreas. Inflammation of the pancreas and cancer of the pancreas are particularly painful.
“We think PAR-2 might be the main pain mediator there.”
Wallace and his team hope to find something to block the receptor that would not have the side-effects or addictive properties of current painkillers.
