GALVESTON, Texas - A study by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston sheds light on potential therapies for the alleviation of chronic pain from nerve injury, diabetes, osteoarthritis and other conditions. The study appeared in the Jan. 7 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience.
The study, "Persistent Pain Is Dependent on Spinal Mitochondrial Antioxidant Levels," was conducted by Erica S. Schwartz, Hee Young Kim, Jigong Wang, Inhyung Lee, Jin Mo Chung and Kyungsoon Chung, all of UTMB's Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology. Also contributing was Eric Klann of the Center for Neural Science at New York University.
"Persistent or chronic pain is common, difficult to treat and thus a major public health problem," said co-author Kyungsoon Chung. Despite being common, the reason why pain persists after apparent healing of an injured nerve or conditions such as diabetes and osteoarthritis is not well understood.
Researchers have recently learned that highly oxidizing chemicals, such as reactive oxygen species, increase in the nervous system during chronic pain conditions and removal of ROS results in lessening of the pain.
The UTMB researchers studied the effect of oxidant ROS and antioxidants in an animal model of persistent pain. "The findings showed that there was a build-up of oxidant superoxides in pain receiving regions of the spinal cord in chronic pain conditions," Chung said. "The prevention of this build-up by antioxidants, which are in general safe and easily administered, prevented the increase in ROS and lessened the pain."
"These findings, if similar results are obtained in clinical chronic pain conditions, suggest a safe and effective therapy for certain types of chronic pain," Chung said.