Those who suffer chronic pain are desperate for relief. For some, that means medications which may take the edge off, but don’t always address all of the pain issues that patients face. Today’s technologies, including optogenetics may provide doctors a way to help these patients with a non-invasive, highly focused treatment.
Optogenetics includes making cells that are responsible for pain transmission sensitive to the light and this technique may allow physicians to target, desensitize and reduce bioelectric activity in the pain-causing cells.
Researchers at McGill University bred a transgenic mouse model with a light-sensitive trait in its peripheral neuron – those neurons are known to transmit pain. The terminals of the Peripheral nociceptors were silenced optogentically with a “high degree of spatiotemporal precision,” in the hopes it would lead to alleviating inflammatory neuropathic pain.
The proteins, called opsins, react to light and when they were exposed to the light, the level of bioelectric activity of the cells was reduced. It was found that yellow light stimulation blocked electrically induced action potentials in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons in the mouse. This helped block the mouse’s sensitivity to touch and pain in its paw.
The effect of the test was that the duration and effect of the desensitizing of the pain could be controlled by the amount of time the light was applied. The ability to precisely target the painful area underlines its advantages for use in humans.
Opiates are typically prescribed to patients in need of relief from chronic pain. These can be addictive and the patient can build a tolerance to its effects and that can lead to overuse and misuse. Optogenetics removes opiates from the equation and could prove to be safer for patients suffering chronic pain.
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