Millions suffer from acute or chronic pain every year and the effects of pain exact a tremendous cost on our country in health care costs, rehabilitation and lost worker productivity, as well as the emotional and financial burden it places on patients and their families.
While acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous system to alert you to possible injury and the need to take care of yourself, chronic pain is different. Chronic pain is continual. Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months, sometimes even years. Chronic pain can be triggered by an initial mishap: a sprained back, a serious infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of the pain; arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some people do suffer in the absence of any past injury. Commonly, older adults suffer from chronic pain. A recent market research report indicates that more than 1.5 billion people worldwide suffer from chronic pain.
There is hope on the horizon for those who suffer chronic pain in the form of light therepy, or more specifically, Optogenetics.
Optogenetics may someday provide doctors with a noninvasive, highly focused way to treat chronic pain. By making the cells responsible for pain transmission sensitive to light, the technique may be able to target, desensitize and reduce bioelectric activity in these cells.
To demonstrate the potential role of optogenetics in pain management, researchers at McGill University, led by Professor Philippe Séguéla, bred a transgenic mouse model with a light-sensitive trait in the Nav1.8+ nociceptors, i.e., the peripheral neurons that are known to transmit pain. The terminals of the peripheral nociceptors were silenced optogenetically with a high degree of spatiotemporal precision, leading to the alleviation of inflammatory and neuropathic pain.
Researchers bred mice with a light-sensitive trait in peripheral neurons that were known to be responsible for pain transmission. The mice were genetically modified so that these neurons, called Nav 1.8+ nociceptors, express proteins called opsins, which react to light, a process known as optogenetics.
When these sensory neurons are exposed to yellow light, the opsins move ions across the membrane, reducing the level of bioelectric activity of the cells. This effectively shuts off the neurons, decreasing the mouse’s sensitivity to touch and heat.
Opiates are the most commonly used treatment for chronic pain today, but they are often used systemically and not directed to the specific region of the body affected by the pain. The duration of the opiate effects can be estimated, but without the same precision as a beam of light.
Making sure your Optogenetic device is pinpointing the patient’s nerves will require a clear and precise lens. UKA provides that and you can have the upmost confidence knowing we are handling your specific needs from design through manufacturing.
“Chronic pain is an increasingly big problem clinically and for many years we’ve relied only on opiates,” said Séguéla. “It’s hard to treat because of tolerance, making it necessary to increase dosages, which leads to serious side effects. Optogenetic therapy could be a highly effective way to relieve chronic pain while avoiding the side effects of traditional pain medication.”
Universe Kogaku designs and manufactures optical lenses for Optogenetic Light Therapy Systems, security, high tech and electronic applications. We stock 1000’s of standard lens assemblies and can custom design a solution for scanners, CCTV, CCD/CMOS, medical imaging, surveillance systems, machine vision and night vision systems.